The Key of R by Women, Women, & Song this text file by Brian White - brian@aljex.com A D A I am a young folk singer and I've travelled far and near D A E I sing about the pain of life, & other things I hold dear A D A And when I sing about all the agony I endure D A E R I always sing in my favorite key. I sing in the key of R (chorus) A Oh the key of R is a wonderous key D A that nobody else sings in but me D A Some people think I'm sharp or flat E A but the key of R just sounds like that I sing about my mother, and how her life was hard She raised 12 kids and worked in the mines and rendered her own lard She sewed our clothes and slopped the hogs and other things like that And when I sing about her, I sing in the key of R ... flat. chorus I had a good old hound dog and his name of course was Blue And we growed up together when the world was fresh and new But ahh my friends that old dog died and no dog could be finer And when I sing about old Blue, I sing in the key of R ... flat, minor chorus I sing about America, the land where I was born Her purple mountains, azure waves of grain and fields of corn Her oceans and her deserts are a little bit of heaven And when I sing of this land I love, I sing in the key of R ... flat, minor, seventh chorus Mostly I sing of lost loves and I seem to lose them all The lovers who have left me would fill a union hall The pain of unrequited love, it never seems to finish And when I sing about it, I sing in the key of R ... flat, minor, seventh, diminished chorus And now my song is finished and I hope you sang along Bearing in mind that the notes we sang were never, ever, wrong And though we ruined the meter and we had to stretch for rhyme We sang in the very best key of all, we sang in the key of R ... flat, minor, seventh, diminished, ... with a suspended ninth chorus ----------------------------------- notes: View this file in a fixed-width font! Examples: terminal arial mono lucida console system Above is the basic, simple version that I do, but others do slightly more stuff with it. everyone makes up their own "R" chord, some people make a actual chord that they use the same way in every performance like it was just another chord, and some go further and make R-flat, R-flat-minor, etc... modifications to it, and some just don't make any attempt to play any particular notes, just a random grab at the strings that may come out different every time but always trying for the nastiest dischordant honk possible. I use the same strings most of the time, but sometimes a random grab, never managed to make a good set of Rb, Rbm, Rbm7 etc... whenever I try, the R might sound good and horrible, but one of the variations ends up being a perfectly pleasant sounding chord, and we can't have that. :) my "R" chord is usually: E A D G B e ----------- | | | | | | ----------- | | | | | | ----------- | | O | | | ----------- | O | | O | ----------- | | | | | | some people insert the R chord in the last line of the chorus so that it goes: E R A but the key of R just sounds like that There has been some discussion over the word "azure" in "azure waves of grain" it doesn't seem to make any sense, or if it is an intentional joke no one gets it. However, it seems that the original probably had azure, not amber, based on the memory of the person who is most known for performing it these days, and in any event that is how most (all?) people perform it. I'm pretty sure some people use a whole different set of chords than the A, E, & D shown above. Many people think William Day wrote this song, because he performs it, but he himself states clearly that he is not the original author. see: mudcat.org , specifically http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=10165 A sound file of myself performing this tune may be found here: http://www.aljex.com/bkw/bob/keyofr.wma 31/Jul/2003 1:41 Brian K. White -- brian@aljex.com -- http://www.aljex.com/bkw/ +++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++. filePro BBx Linux SCO Prosper/FACTS AutoCAD #callahans Satriani