BURNING SPEAR

tab by chris lawrence

Okay. First EP, first song. 

For some of these early tabs, there's not much I can do but give you
a guideline on how to recreate the sounds. 

For instance, Burning Spear, as it appears on the first EP, is in 
standard tuning. But this really doesn't matter. Recent tours have 
seen Thurston use F#F#F#F#EB for it, and Lee use whatever guitar he 
happens to be playing at the time. It's more about sounds than specific 
tones.

Thurston puts a drumstick under the strings at the 12th fret. He then 
rubs a second drumstick against it to get the first sound you hear on 
the song (other than the drums). Eventually he begins hitting the
drumsticks together repeatedly, in a pattern that basically goes: 
top, bottom, top, bottom... etc. w/ "top" being the part of the 
drumstick sticking out above the guitar neck, and "bottom" being the part 
of the drumstick sticking out under the neck. While striking each part, 
his hand tweaks the other end (so bottom, top, bottom, top etc...). 
I really can't explain so unless you've seen it in action, just suffer 
with never knowing.. I guess.

He doesn't play while he sings. 

Lee apparently runs an electric drill thru a wah pedal for the 
growling sounds you hear during the song. So, go crazy with that.

For the outro, Thurston rubs the drumstick like the intro, while Lee
hits his guitar with a drumstick. So basically, Thurston is the 
constant whirring sound, while Lee is the guitar who plays off the 
drums. In concert, Lee just improvises 100%, I think. I've seen
his guitar end up w/ 2 sticks under the strings and him just sitting
on the floor banging away at it with a third stick, so whatever.

When it gets fast at the end, both guitars just go nuts.

So yeah. Burning Spear. Lots of drumsticks. Yup.

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