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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

Permalink The Darts - Top Eliminator: Anyone tabbed it?

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Hi all,

My band has wanted to cover this forever so before I begin the no doubt lengthy task of working it out, I thought I'd ask if anyone has tabbed it already?

Thanks
Eddie

hollowgrinders.bandcamp.com
Soundcloud

That's a cool song! It's pretty straightforward. I don't know how familiar you are with music theory and chord naming convention but I can tell you that it's basically just a VI-I in A# maj. They play the Gmin to the A#maj and then throw in that descending VI-V-IV-III progression from the Gmin and break from convention by making the III a major in every instance they play it (I think). Except in the last round through it sounds like they play dominant 7s for the IV and III right at the end.

And of course there are the two key changes one half step up each but they're nothing more than transpositions of the original progression.

As for the soloing part, it's just pentatonic stuff like you find in so much surf music.

I'll qualify all this by saying that I'm no expert! If anyone hears it differently please weigh in. I kind of feel like there are some subtle things my ear isn't good enough to definitively identify. For instance, it almost sounds like someone is playing a major chord for the VI at the end of the progression every now and then but I dunno..

Last edited: Nov 01, 2017 20:46:11

Thanks Redfeather,

I think you've saved me a bit of time there. This is one of those songs that is all about the little "breaks with convention" as you call them!

hollowgrinders.bandcamp.com
Soundcloud

To follow up my first post, I have some additional input, based on a conversation with a friend as well as aural analysis of the isolated channels of the track, courtesy of Reaper.

The first is that I think it's technically a minor key song. That's one of those things that is sometimes debatable but this one spends more time on the Gmin and comes to rest there so it's probably safer to call out its key as Gmin. But that doesn't change anything above, really. Same chords as A#maj.

The second thing is that the weird sounding chord I mentioned at the end of the progression, that Gmin in the turnaround (at the 20 second mark, for instance), seems to in fact be just a straight Gmin but there's something going on with overtones or sympathetic resonance or something that creates a slightly unusual sound, like there's another note flavoring the chord. I suspect it's the ringing of the accompanying piano. Can't say for sure but this is what my friend hypothesized and after listening to the isolated rhythm channel, I agree.

So really, this song is very conventional and doesn't break the "rules" at all aside from that major III. I'm curious about the band. I suspect it's just studio musicians killing time or doing a little side project like they often did. I swear the lead guitar was recorded straight into the board and that seems like a studio musician thing to do. Anyone know anything about them?

Last edited: Nov 01, 2017 21:00:50

Thanks again Redfeather!

As for the band, I heard (probably on the Cowabunga list back in the '90s) that it was indeed a manufactured studio-only "group".

I also heard that the lead guitar is none other than Glen Campbell(!!), who used to do a lot of sessions, although apparently he refused to acknowledge them when asked about them by interviewers.

I had always thought that part of the sound was Campbell using a non surf guitar like a tele, but a quick google shows plenty of photos of him with Strats and Mosrites!

hollowgrinders.bandcamp.com
Soundcloud

Also this

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/20875-weird-guitars-vintage-freak-show?page=9

hollowgrinders.bandcamp.com
Soundcloud

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