Chords for ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons On Guitar Universe
Tempo:
127.95 bpm
Chords used:
C
G
A
D
E
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[G] [A]
[B] [C] [D]
[E] You're Burke Wallace and I'm David Levita.
Welcome to Guitar Universe, the only show all about the [C#m] guitar and the people who play it.
Today we have with us one of the kings of the Texas blues [F#] guitar ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.
[A] He's going to tell us among other things how his beloved Les Paul Pearly [F#] Yates got her name.
We'll also take the first part of our guided tour of the famous Fender factory.
Today we'll see just how a couple of wood planks and some metal are transformed into the most widely played guitar in the world.
The beloved Stratocaster.
And we'll learn the best way to [A] string just about any [D] guitar in our workshop segment.
But first, how many [D#] guitar players have a guitar so famous that it has its own name?
And how many players have a guitar made from the cypress beams of Muddy Waters' childhood cabin?
And how many guitar players have played in the same band with the same members for over 30 years?
There's only one player that fits all three and that's ZZ Top's Billy F.
Gibbons.
Billy Gibbons, unquestionably one of the finest guitarists to ever emerge from Texas [G] or anywhere else for that matter.
We sat down recently to talk guitars with the man himself [Dm] and here's what he had to say.
[A]
What was your first guitar and amp?
[C] That goes way back.
Going back, back, back.
Way back.
Had a Gibson Melody Maker.
Single pickup, single cutaway.
Plugged right into a Fender Champ.
What was your first band like?
First band was kind of a hit and miss operation.
[A]
But we were [D] all set and ready with three guitars and [B] drums.
Bass [F#] wasn't counted.
We [C]
listened to too many Jimmy Roode records.
And strangers we all bring [G] to the club.
What was the first band that you were in that you [D] considered professional?
We [Gm] struck it up as the Saints.
[G]
We got hired to play [A] for one of the secret society beer parties.
There was a police road and we got out the same way [Am] we got in.
Over the fence.
What about all the gear?
What did you do?
You just ran for it?
No.
Didn't leave it behind.
It was too hard to get.
I [A] keep thinking about the night [E] in Memphis.
I thought I was in heaven.
You were playing Fenders during the first part of your career.
[A] When did you switch over to Gibsons?
We kind of bounced back and forth between the two.
Jumping from Gibson through Fender years, Telecasters, Esquire, Jazzmasters, Stratocaster.
We went from the [C] Gibson Melody Maker to a Fender Esquire.
[A#]
[F] [C]
As [G] a young fellow starting out, thinking that the heavier strings [A#] promised to deliver a heavier sound.
And [C] that held true until B.B. King pulled me aside and said, why are [G] you working so hard?
He said, you need to lighten up.
And to this day we have managed to maintain the tonal integrity of a big sound.
And it doesn't have to struggle with necessarily a big string.
[C] How did you [F] get Pearly [D] Gates?
We met a [Cm] girl who [A] was angling for a part out in Hollywood, California.
[D] And I had been [N] given a 1939 Packard.
And it was decided that if indeed the car would [Cm] even make it, it must have divine connections.
So we named the [C] car Pearly Gates.
As the story goes, the part was landed.
And subsequent to that, the car was sold.
And the check for $250 arrived back in Texas, allowing me [Cm] to present the owner of this [G] 1959 San Francisco Les Paul for the purchase.
And the name was lifted from the automobile back to the [C] guitar.
So Pearly Gates was [G] enhanced.
[F]
[C] I'm sleeping in the back.
[G] Sleep in the [C] back.
Pearly [D] Gates travels on occasion.
It's one of those special [F#] instruments that gets extra special treatment.
What's Pearly's backup?
Well, there's many.
You've got different [F] wood being delivered on different days.
You've got different paint finishes [G#] being sprayed on different hours of the afternoon.
Different windings of the coil of the [B] pickup.
All of these mystical things retain the [E] boo-boo that makes these instruments so mysterious.
They're all different, and they're all good.
She can't lay.
She knows I'm losing.
[F#] What about that peso coin you got?
[C#] The peso pick, we found handiness in first using a quarter.
After breaking about [E] one string every third song, we decided that the Mexican peso might offer a more strident [C#]
approach
without that serrated edge [D#] scratching and sawing its way through the metal.
Between that and the mechanic that learned how to [D] shape them and shave them [A] down, we're still in good business.
Coming up, we'll see just how a Strat is made [C] as we take a tour of the Fender factory.
[G] [C] [D]
[E]
[B] [C] [D]
[E] You're Burke Wallace and I'm David Levita.
Welcome to Guitar Universe, the only show all about the [C#m] guitar and the people who play it.
Today we have with us one of the kings of the Texas blues [F#] guitar ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.
[A] He's going to tell us among other things how his beloved Les Paul Pearly [F#] Yates got her name.
We'll also take the first part of our guided tour of the famous Fender factory.
Today we'll see just how a couple of wood planks and some metal are transformed into the most widely played guitar in the world.
The beloved Stratocaster.
And we'll learn the best way to [A] string just about any [D] guitar in our workshop segment.
But first, how many [D#] guitar players have a guitar so famous that it has its own name?
And how many players have a guitar made from the cypress beams of Muddy Waters' childhood cabin?
And how many guitar players have played in the same band with the same members for over 30 years?
There's only one player that fits all three and that's ZZ Top's Billy F.
Gibbons.
Billy Gibbons, unquestionably one of the finest guitarists to ever emerge from Texas [G] or anywhere else for that matter.
We sat down recently to talk guitars with the man himself [Dm] and here's what he had to say.
[A]
What was your first guitar and amp?
[C] That goes way back.
Going back, back, back.
Way back.
Had a Gibson Melody Maker.
Single pickup, single cutaway.
Plugged right into a Fender Champ.
What was your first band like?
First band was kind of a hit and miss operation.
[A]
But we were [D] all set and ready with three guitars and [B] drums.
Bass [F#] wasn't counted.
We [C]
listened to too many Jimmy Roode records.
And strangers we all bring [G] to the club.
What was the first band that you were in that you [D] considered professional?
We [Gm] struck it up as the Saints.
[G]
We got hired to play [A] for one of the secret society beer parties.
There was a police road and we got out the same way [Am] we got in.
Over the fence.
What about all the gear?
What did you do?
You just ran for it?
No.
Didn't leave it behind.
It was too hard to get.
I [A] keep thinking about the night [E] in Memphis.
I thought I was in heaven.
You were playing Fenders during the first part of your career.
[A] When did you switch over to Gibsons?
We kind of bounced back and forth between the two.
Jumping from Gibson through Fender years, Telecasters, Esquire, Jazzmasters, Stratocaster.
We went from the [C] Gibson Melody Maker to a Fender Esquire.
[A#]
[F] [C]
As [G] a young fellow starting out, thinking that the heavier strings [A#] promised to deliver a heavier sound.
And [C] that held true until B.B. King pulled me aside and said, why are [G] you working so hard?
He said, you need to lighten up.
And to this day we have managed to maintain the tonal integrity of a big sound.
And it doesn't have to struggle with necessarily a big string.
[C] How did you [F] get Pearly [D] Gates?
We met a [Cm] girl who [A] was angling for a part out in Hollywood, California.
[D] And I had been [N] given a 1939 Packard.
And it was decided that if indeed the car would [Cm] even make it, it must have divine connections.
So we named the [C] car Pearly Gates.
As the story goes, the part was landed.
And subsequent to that, the car was sold.
And the check for $250 arrived back in Texas, allowing me [Cm] to present the owner of this [G] 1959 San Francisco Les Paul for the purchase.
And the name was lifted from the automobile back to the [C] guitar.
So Pearly Gates was [G] enhanced.
[F]
[C] I'm sleeping in the back.
[G] Sleep in the [C] back.
Pearly [D] Gates travels on occasion.
It's one of those special [F#] instruments that gets extra special treatment.
What's Pearly's backup?
Well, there's many.
You've got different [F] wood being delivered on different days.
You've got different paint finishes [G#] being sprayed on different hours of the afternoon.
Different windings of the coil of the [B] pickup.
All of these mystical things retain the [E] boo-boo that makes these instruments so mysterious.
They're all different, and they're all good.
She can't lay.
She knows I'm losing.
[F#] What about that peso coin you got?
[C#] The peso pick, we found handiness in first using a quarter.
After breaking about [E] one string every third song, we decided that the Mexican peso might offer a more strident [C#]
approach
without that serrated edge [D#] scratching and sawing its way through the metal.
Between that and the mechanic that learned how to [D] shape them and shave them [A] down, we're still in good business.
Coming up, we'll see just how a Strat is made [C] as we take a tour of the Fender factory.
[G] [C] [D]
[E]
Key:
C
G
A
D
E
C
G
A
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [B] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ You're Burke Wallace and I'm David Levita.
Welcome to Guitar Universe, the only show all about the [C#m] guitar and the people who play it.
Today we have with us one of the kings of the Texas blues [F#] guitar ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.
[A] He's going to tell us among other things how his beloved Les Paul Pearly [F#] Yates got her name.
We'll also take the first part of our guided tour of the famous Fender factory.
Today we'll see just how a couple of wood planks and some metal are transformed into the most widely played guitar in the world.
The beloved Stratocaster.
And we'll learn the best way to [A] string just about any [D] guitar in our workshop segment.
But first, how many [D#] guitar players have a guitar so famous that it has its own name?
And how many players have a guitar made from the cypress beams of Muddy Waters' childhood cabin?
And how many guitar players have played in the same band with the same members for over 30 years?
There's only one player that fits all three and that's ZZ Top's Billy F.
Gibbons.
Billy Gibbons, unquestionably one of the finest guitarists to ever emerge from Texas [G] or anywhere else for that matter.
We sat down recently to talk guitars with the man himself [Dm] and here's what he had to say.
[A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ What was your first guitar and amp?
_ [C] That goes way back.
Going back, back, back.
Way back.
Had a Gibson Melody Maker.
Single pickup, single cutaway.
_ Plugged right into a Fender Champ.
What was your first band like?
First band was kind of a hit and miss operation.
[A] _
But we were [D] all set and ready with three guitars and [B] drums.
Bass [F#] wasn't counted.
We [C]
listened to too many Jimmy Roode records.
And strangers we all bring [G] to the club. _ _ _
_ _ What was the first band that you were in that you [D] considered professional?
We [Gm] struck it up as the Saints.
[G] _ _ _ _
We got hired to play [A] for one of the secret society beer parties.
There was a police road and we _ got out the same way [Am] we got in.
Over the fence.
What about all the gear?
What did you do?
You just ran for it?
No.
Didn't leave it behind.
It was too hard to get.
I [A] keep thinking about the night [E] in Memphis. _ _
I thought I was in heaven. _ _
You were playing Fenders during the first part of your career.
[A] When did you switch over to Gibsons?
We kind of bounced back and forth between the two.
Jumping from Gibson through Fender years, _ Telecasters, Esquire, _ Jazzmasters, _ Stratocaster.
We went from the [C] Gibson Melody Maker to a Fender _ Esquire.
_ _ _ [A#] _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [C] _
As [G] a young fellow starting out, thinking that the heavier strings [A#] promised to deliver a heavier sound.
And [C] that held true until B.B. King pulled me aside and said, why are [G] you working so hard?
He said, you need to lighten up.
And to this day we have managed to maintain the tonal integrity of a big sound.
And it doesn't have to struggle with necessarily a big string. _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ How did you [F] get Pearly [D] Gates? _ _ _
We met a [Cm] girl who [A] was angling for a part out in Hollywood, California.
[D] And I had been [N] given a 1939 Packard.
And it was decided that if indeed the car would [Cm] even make it, it must have divine connections.
So we named the [C] car Pearly Gates.
As the story goes, the part was landed.
And subsequent to that, the car was sold.
And the check for $250 _ arrived back in Texas, _ allowing me [Cm] to present the owner of this [G] 1959 San Francisco Les Paul for the purchase.
And the name was lifted from the automobile back to the [C] guitar.
So Pearly Gates was [G] _ enhanced.
[F] _ _ _
[C] I'm sleeping in the back.
_ [G] _ _ Sleep in the _ [C] back.
Pearly [D] Gates travels on occasion.
It's one of those special [F#] instruments that gets extra special treatment.
_ What's Pearly's backup?
Well, there's many.
You've got different _ [F] wood being delivered on different days.
You've got different paint finishes [G#] being sprayed on different hours of the afternoon.
Different windings of the coil of the [B] pickup.
All of these mystical things retain the [E] boo-boo that makes these instruments so mysterious.
They're all different, _ and they're all good.
She can't lay. _
_ _ She knows I'm losing.
_ _ _ [F#] What about that peso coin you got?
[C#] The peso pick, we found _ handiness in first using a quarter.
After breaking about [E] one string every third song, we decided that the Mexican peso might offer a more strident _ [C#]
approach
without that serrated edge [D#] scratching and sawing its way through the metal.
Between that and the mechanic that learned how to [D] shape them and shave them [A] down, we're still in good business.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Coming up, we'll see just how a Strat is made [C] as we take a tour of the Fender factory.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ You're Burke Wallace and I'm David Levita.
Welcome to Guitar Universe, the only show all about the [C#m] guitar and the people who play it.
Today we have with us one of the kings of the Texas blues [F#] guitar ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.
[A] He's going to tell us among other things how his beloved Les Paul Pearly [F#] Yates got her name.
We'll also take the first part of our guided tour of the famous Fender factory.
Today we'll see just how a couple of wood planks and some metal are transformed into the most widely played guitar in the world.
The beloved Stratocaster.
And we'll learn the best way to [A] string just about any [D] guitar in our workshop segment.
But first, how many [D#] guitar players have a guitar so famous that it has its own name?
And how many players have a guitar made from the cypress beams of Muddy Waters' childhood cabin?
And how many guitar players have played in the same band with the same members for over 30 years?
There's only one player that fits all three and that's ZZ Top's Billy F.
Gibbons.
Billy Gibbons, unquestionably one of the finest guitarists to ever emerge from Texas [G] or anywhere else for that matter.
We sat down recently to talk guitars with the man himself [Dm] and here's what he had to say.
[A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ What was your first guitar and amp?
_ [C] That goes way back.
Going back, back, back.
Way back.
Had a Gibson Melody Maker.
Single pickup, single cutaway.
_ Plugged right into a Fender Champ.
What was your first band like?
First band was kind of a hit and miss operation.
[A] _
But we were [D] all set and ready with three guitars and [B] drums.
Bass [F#] wasn't counted.
We [C]
listened to too many Jimmy Roode records.
And strangers we all bring [G] to the club. _ _ _
_ _ What was the first band that you were in that you [D] considered professional?
We [Gm] struck it up as the Saints.
[G] _ _ _ _
We got hired to play [A] for one of the secret society beer parties.
There was a police road and we _ got out the same way [Am] we got in.
Over the fence.
What about all the gear?
What did you do?
You just ran for it?
No.
Didn't leave it behind.
It was too hard to get.
I [A] keep thinking about the night [E] in Memphis. _ _
I thought I was in heaven. _ _
You were playing Fenders during the first part of your career.
[A] When did you switch over to Gibsons?
We kind of bounced back and forth between the two.
Jumping from Gibson through Fender years, _ Telecasters, Esquire, _ Jazzmasters, _ Stratocaster.
We went from the [C] Gibson Melody Maker to a Fender _ Esquire.
_ _ _ [A#] _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [C] _
As [G] a young fellow starting out, thinking that the heavier strings [A#] promised to deliver a heavier sound.
And [C] that held true until B.B. King pulled me aside and said, why are [G] you working so hard?
He said, you need to lighten up.
And to this day we have managed to maintain the tonal integrity of a big sound.
And it doesn't have to struggle with necessarily a big string. _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ How did you [F] get Pearly [D] Gates? _ _ _
We met a [Cm] girl who [A] was angling for a part out in Hollywood, California.
[D] And I had been [N] given a 1939 Packard.
And it was decided that if indeed the car would [Cm] even make it, it must have divine connections.
So we named the [C] car Pearly Gates.
As the story goes, the part was landed.
And subsequent to that, the car was sold.
And the check for $250 _ arrived back in Texas, _ allowing me [Cm] to present the owner of this [G] 1959 San Francisco Les Paul for the purchase.
And the name was lifted from the automobile back to the [C] guitar.
So Pearly Gates was [G] _ enhanced.
[F] _ _ _
[C] I'm sleeping in the back.
_ [G] _ _ Sleep in the _ [C] back.
Pearly [D] Gates travels on occasion.
It's one of those special [F#] instruments that gets extra special treatment.
_ What's Pearly's backup?
Well, there's many.
You've got different _ [F] wood being delivered on different days.
You've got different paint finishes [G#] being sprayed on different hours of the afternoon.
Different windings of the coil of the [B] pickup.
All of these mystical things retain the [E] boo-boo that makes these instruments so mysterious.
They're all different, _ and they're all good.
She can't lay. _
_ _ She knows I'm losing.
_ _ _ [F#] What about that peso coin you got?
[C#] The peso pick, we found _ handiness in first using a quarter.
After breaking about [E] one string every third song, we decided that the Mexican peso might offer a more strident _ [C#]
approach
without that serrated edge [D#] scratching and sawing its way through the metal.
Between that and the mechanic that learned how to [D] shape them and shave them [A] down, we're still in good business.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Coming up, we'll see just how a Strat is made [C] as we take a tour of the Fender factory.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _