ERIC'S TRIP by Sonic Youth Tab by Chris Lawrence (silvercircle@shaw.ca) TUNINGS ------- LEE: EBEEAB THURSTON: BB F#F# (F# strings are lower than the B strings) For this song, Thurston uses the infamous Drifter guitar, which had the frets removed and has four bass strings. He uses a drumstick to fret his notes. You can approximate his part on a 6-string guitar tuned F#BBxxx (the xxx doesn't matter). LAYOUT: A - B - C - A - B - C - D - E - F - A - B - C A SECTION 00:04-00:29 Lee: B------------------------------- A-----9--9-9-9------------------ E-----9--9-9-9---5--7---2------- he varies the first chord, not always strumming it as much E---7-7--7-7-7---5--7---2------- and not always adding the 9th fret notes B---7-7--7-7-7---5--5---0------- E---7-7--7-7-7---5-------------- Thurston uses a drumstick as a slide, and basically slides into the notes while picking them. Each slide indicated in the tab is noteworthy (and some are more gradual than others), but he is also not extremely precise with the intonation of every single note. F#------------------\\10\\12------------------------------- (play twice) F#------------------\\10\\12------------------------------ B----\12----\12-----------------\12----\12----\17---\19--- when he goes an octave up, he does B----\12----\12-----------------\12----\12----\17---\19--- a lot more random drumstick slidin' During later live versions, he does the entire riff on the B strings, going down to the 7th fret. B SECTION 00:29-00:42 Lee casually strums these chords: B--------------- A---2----------- E---2-----0----- his center overdub guitar just slides up the fretboard making noise E---2-----0----- over the second chord B---0-----0----- x 4 E---------0----- Thurston: F#---0---- F#---0---- slide drumstick up to pickups and pick furiously over 2nd chord B----0---- B----0---- C SECTION 00:42-00:54 Lee: B-------12-12-12--0--- A-------12-12-12-11--- E---10--12-12-12-12--- x 4 E---10--10-10-10--0--- B---10---------------- E---10---------------- Thurston: F#------------------------------------------- F#------------------------------------------- mute the strings with your palm at the bridge B---12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12--- and just smash the 12th fret w/ the drumstick B---12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12--- over and over... no picking! A SECTION 00:54-01:19 B SECTION 01:19-01:32 C SECTION 01:32-01:44 D SECTION 01:45-01:57 Lee's main guitar stabs this chord with every snare hit: B------- A------- E---7--- E---7--- B---0--- E------- His center overdub strikes the chord in aggressive staccato chops at the start of each bar (?) Thurston continues his previous motif: F#------------------------------------------ F#------------------------------------------ mute the strings with your palm at the bridge B---12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-- and just smash the 12th fret w/ the drumstick B---12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-- over and over... E SECTION 01:58-02:35 Lee: B------------------------------ A------------------------0-0--- E---7--7--7-7-7-9--9-9-9-9-9--- x 12 E---7--7--7-7-7-9--9-9-9-9-9--- B---0--0--0-0-0-0-------------- E------------------------------ On the album, his center guitar starts playing something similar, maybe shapes like this? B------------- A---7----9---- E---7----9---- E---5----7---- B------------- E------------- There's so much panning of multiple tracks of "guitar played in wild fashion", it's a little tough to zero in directly on that middle part. Lee may be one of the noise guitars. During live versions, they cut this section from 12 to 8, making it a bit more focused moving into the next part. Thurston just goes wild with the drumstick while Lee is singing "This is Eric's trip...". At this point his guitar is panned from the left and zips all over between speakers, and it sounds like he may have added another guitar doing the same wild drumstick workout (this could be a Lee overdub, though). On the record he plays this at 2:22, but live versions would go straight to it after "can you dig it?": F#-----------0-------- F#-----------0-------- play four times B---0----------------- B---0----------------- F SECTION 02:35-02:48 Lee arpeggiates this chord: B---7--- A---7--- his center guitar plays the same shape E---7--- E---7--- there may be a third guitar in the mix B------- E------- Thurston holds the drumstick over the pick ups and just picks high whirring noises while Lee arpeggiates his chord. At the very end, he slides back to go back into the verse. During live versions, he seems to mostly play the 17th fret of the B, dipping down to the 14th. A SECTION 02:48-03:14 B SECTION 03:14-03:27 C SECTION 03:28-03:48 last updated: 06/20/24 ------------------------------------------------ THE SONIC YOUTH GUITAR/BASS TABLATURE ARCHIVE: http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/index.html ------------------------------------------------