J'ACCUSE TED HUGHES by Sonic Youth Tab by Chris Lawrence (silvercircle@shaw.ca) TUNINGS ------- Kim: DADABB (B's tuned down) Thurston: C G C/C C/C G/G A#/C (12-string with 10 strings) Lee: C G C/C C/C G/G A#/C (12-string with 10 strings) MINUTE 1 00:00-01:00 Thurston starts by picking the low C: C----------------------------------- G----------------------------------- C----------------------------------- C----------------------------------- G----------------------------------- C---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--- etc Lee does quiet feedback swells on the high C note. Kim strikes a few tentative skronky chords, then goes to her amp to adjust something. She comes back at 0:38 playing this: B---7--- B---7--- A---0--- D------- A------- D------- At 0:50 she switches to another chord she plays for a bit, continuing into the next section: B------- B------- A---7--- w/ steady rhythm D---8--- A------- D------- MINUTE 2 01:00-02:00 Thurston keeps droning the low C string. Lee continues high C feedback swells. At 1:27 he plays 12th fret harmonics (low C then high C). Then he starts lightly strumming open strings from low to high, riding the high C for a bit. It doesn't sound like the A# note is being picked so he must be isolating the C string. Kim keeps playing the previous chord. At 1:16 she switches to: B---6--- B---6--- A---0--- D------- A------- D------- Then at 1:40 all open strings: B---0--- B---0--- A---0--- D------- A------- D------- Moving towards the lower strings by 1:50 or so: B------- B------- A------- D------- A---0--- D---0--- MINUTE 3 02:00-03:00 Thurston gradually starts adding more of the open strings to the chord, eventually droning this: C------- G------- C---0--- C---0--- G---0--- C---0--- Lee keeps droning the high C string, then starts a motif that is basically like: C---------------------------0-0-0-0----------------- G-------------------------0-0-------16-16---17-17--- C-------------------0-0-0-0------------------------- C-------------------0-0-0-0------------------------- G---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0------------------------- C---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0------------------------- Play that twice, then go back to droning the high C, then start picking out skronky chords. At 2:00 Kim switches back to her previous chord: B------- B------- A---7--- D---8--- A------- D------- Then at 2:04 she's already off to the open strings again (xxx000), then she starts hitting the 6 fret on the Bs, back to open, etc. At this point you get the idea of her rhythm and the general range of notes she's choosing. MINUTE 4 03:00-04:00 Thurston keeps droning the same chord. Lee drones the high C for a bit, then hits a chord like this a few times: C-------- G-------- C---18--- C----0--- G----0--- C----0--- Then at 3:28 he starts playing 12th fret harmonics, and you can hear him picking between the A# and the high C. He has a prominent phaser type sound at this point though I'm not sure what it would have been as he seemed to drop any kind of phaser from his live rig after the gear theft. After the harmonics he starts playing some skronky notes and chords. Kim continues bashing out skronky chords in the same rhythm. I can hear the open high A string a lot. MINUTE 5 04:00-05:00 Thurston keeps droning the same chord. Lee keeps playing skronky chords. At 4:40 he steps on distortion a few times, then goes back to picking open strings and droning the high C. Around 4:07 Kim starts doing quick trem pick attacks on certain notes: B-------------------- B-------------------- A-------7--------7--- D---8------------8--- A-------------------- D-----------7-------- bend the low string a bit She goes back and forth between the notes and then hangs on the chord version. MINUTE 6 05:00-06:00 Thurston keeps droning the same chord, very aggressively now but just as steady. Does he turn a phaser on? Lee does light skronk into open strings. At 5:40 he starts doing 7th fret harmonics. Kim bashes out skronky notes on the high A string between the 14th and 17 frets. Around 5:45 she switches between the open A string and the 17th fret for a bit. MINUTE 7 06:00-07:00 Thurston keeps droning the same chord, still steady but sometimes mixing up the rhythm when Kim starts singing, adding extra bursts of wrist action. Lee keeps playing 7th fret harmonics. When Kim starts singing, I think he starts playing harmonics while moving his finger from the 3rd to 5th-ish frets. At this point, he seems to have distortion on. Kim starts by quickly picking the open B strings: B---0--- B---0--- A---/--- D------- A------- D------- When she starts singing at 6:15, it sounds like she's just picking a shape like this: B-------- B-------- A---19--- D---19--- A-------- D-------- The Eterna sounds so odd when it's clean that she may just be playing that, or she may be playing a slightly "weirder" chord. Either way, she's just picking at skronky shapes while she sings. MINUTE 8 07:00-08:00 Thurston keeps droning the same chord. Lee does big open string wall of sound noise with distortion and delay, probably adding extra skronk. He does more harmonics around 7:50. While she sings, Kim continues strumming skronky chords high up the neck and with open high A string droning. MINUTE 9 08:00-09:00 Thurston keeps droning the same chord. Lee does a mix of harmonics and open string droning, getting way more intense towards the 9-minute mark. Kim keeps singing and strumming random skronk chords. MINUTE 10 09:00-10:00 Thurston keeps droning the same chord. At this point it is heavily distorted. Around 9:30, he starts to emphasize the middle strings more: C------- G---0--- C---0--- C---0--- G------- C------- He strums that until he begins playing 12th fret harmonics. Lee keeps playing a cloud of harmonics and open strings. Around 9:35 his high A#/C drifts back in more clearly, then he hits the low C string again, and back to the high C. Kim keeps singing and strumming random skronk chords. She's picking around the 16th-19th fret on the high A string. MINUTE 11 10:00-11:00 Thurston keeps strumming 12th fret harmonics. Lee plays chunky 5th and 7th fret harmonics with increasing modulation. Kim hits the low D and A strings a couple of times, possibly with a mallet. She mostly sings. Around 10:53 she starts picking with the mallet against or under the strings. MINUTE 12 11:00-12:00 Thurston keeps strumming 12th fret harmonics, then just drones the middle C strings. At 11:37 he goes back to strumming 5th fret harmonics. Lee steps back, occasionally bursting harmonics or backwards-sounding swells. Around 11:55 he starts a chord like: C---0--- G---7--- C---0--- C---0--- G------- C------- Kim is still singing, and has a mallet under the strings of her guitar, which she's jerking around and picking. MINUTE 13 12:00-13:00 Thurston keeps strumming 5th fret harmonics. He slowly starts including less harmonic and more straight-up mute in his strumming. Lee holds the same shape, picking a pattern like: C-----0-------0-------- G---7-------7---------- C--------0-------0----- C---------------------- G---------------------- C---------------------- Then he does 5th fret harmonics with a few bursts of feedback, then settles into strumming 5th fret harmonics on the middle C strings. Kim keeps singing, pulling the strings off the fretboard with the mallet. When she stops singing around 12:30, she pulls the mallet out and walks back to her amp for a bit to pick up a water bottle. MINUTE 14 13:00-14:00 Thurston keeps strumming muted strings with the sliiiightest hint of harmonic. Lee keeps strumming 5th fret harmonics (with open strings mixed in). He mostly accents the middle C and high G strings with the harmonics, then goes down to the low C. Around 13:30 he starts playing shapes like: C---12--10--- over and over w/ heavy delay + low notes G---12--10--- C------------ C------------ G------------ C------------ Then just harmonic skronk as Thurston winds down to the next section. Around 13:30, Kim starts rubbing both the mallet and the water bottle up and down her fretboard. MINUTE 15 14:00-15:00 Thurston starts picking the low C string again: C----------------------------------- G----------------------------------- C----------------------------------- C----------------------------------- G----------------------------------- C---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--- etc By 14:30 he is back to his full agro chord in full agro strum glory: C------- G------- C---0--- C---0--- G---0--- C---0--- Lee turns on his ring modulator and goes wild. He uses heavy delay and distortion and basically just plays the same open string motif from earlier. Kim puts the mallet and bottle down around 14:20 and starts hitting open strings, first high then low. Around 14:38 she starts bashing out a chord like this: B------- B------- A---9--- D---0--- A---0--- D---0--- Keep playing til next section. MINUTE 16 15:00-16:00 Thurston keeps aggressively strumming the same chord. It sounds like he starts doing fuzzbox accents. Lee continues droning the high C string. I swear it sounds like he has a wah or phaser during parts of this song! Then more 5th fret harmonics, and back to heavy delay skronk chord glory. Kim continues striking the same chord as the previous section. Around 15:30 she starts trem picking up around the 17th fret on the high A string, moving up to the 18th fret. MINUTE 17 16:00-17:00 Thurston keeps bashing the same open chord, with fuzzbox accents. His rhythm changes slightly, accenting the low string then middle strings. Lee releases his wall of skronk and just kinda starts smacking the low C string around. Then he goes from low to high and works the high C string a bit, then starts strumming all of the open strings. Kim keeps trem picking the 18th fret of the high A string. Her guitar gets a bit quieter at this point but I think she's just doing more skronk picking. Possibly from the 7th to 19th fret on the A string. MINUTE 18 17:00-18:00 Thurston keeps hammering the same chord but starts adding stompbox bursts. Lee keeps droning the high C string while adding extra bursts of distortion and ring modulation. He gets the low C string in there too. Kim continues rapidly picking notes in a shape like this: B-------- B-------- A---19--- D---19--- A-------- D-------- Then she switches to another chord, strumming quickly while also pulling off to the open A string. It's all just chaos at this point. MINUTE 19 18:00-19:00 Thurston keeps destroying the same chord, turning on his Wah-Vol around 18:07 and taking things to total meltdown. He basically just goes full "crazy" strumming up and down the fretboard, adding bursts from his MXR boxes. Lee keeps chugging the low C and G strings, then starts doing light skronk chords with delay. Around 18:40 he runs his finger from the nut to the 5th fret or so doing harmonics on the low C string, then just does strangled bursts of distorted noise. Kim starts banging out the same chord over and over: B------- B------- A------- D---1--- A---x--- D---1--- MINUTE 20 19:00-20:00 Thurston continues "freaking out". At roughly 19:45, he puts his guitar behind his head (while still playing). This moment was captured on the cover of SYR7. Then he held the guitar up to his amp while strumming for some extra feedback squeal. Lee does aggressive ring modulated pick scrapes with delay. Around 19:40 he turns off the distortion and just does chunky palm muted open string picking with delay. Kim keeps playing the same chord. She stops at 19:40 and places the mallet back under her strings, then picks out a slow plinky chord with some kind of reverb or modulation. MINUTE 21 20:00-21:00 Thurston was still facing his amp at this point, making squeaky skronk before moving back to his pedals and turning his wah on at 20:20 for some super noise. Lee drones the low C, then hits the high C. He goes back to the low C for a bit, then chokes out some swipey string noise, moving to pick scrapes with delay. Then he does more "harmonics from the nut to the 5th fret and back" on the low C string. Kim keeps picking the strings with the mallet underneath them. She starts singing again at 20:56. MINUTE 22 21:00-22:00 Thurston keeps making a wall of wah/fuzz, and around 21:25 he is just using his patchcord and manipulating static with his effects. Lee keeps doing harmonics on the low C string, moving his finger up and down the string while picking. I don't know what effect he's using here - a wah? Phaser? Something built into the ring mod? By 21:30 and onwards he's just kinda doing waves of phaser noise. Kim keeps singing while casually picking out notes behind the mallet. MINUTE 23 22:00-22:53 Thurston lets his wah bleed out while he grabs his next guitar, which he plugs in around 22:15 (it's a black Jazzmaster he used for the next song "Free City Rhymes"). He makes one final burst of noise at 22:44 and that's it! Lee just does waves of feedback, building to a bit of a wail. At the very end you can hear him pick out his open strings before starting "Free City Rhymes". Kim stops singing at 22:30, and plays her final plinky mallet chord moments later. Last updated: 04/08/24 ------------------------------------------------ THE SONIC YOUTH GUITAR/BASS TABLATURE ARCHIVE: http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/index.html ------------------------------------------------