PROTECT ME YOU
by Sonic Youth

Tab by Chris Lawrence (silvercircle@shaw.ca)

TUNINGS
-------
Thurston: EEEEEE

LAYOUT: A - B - C


A SECTION				00:00-03:47

Thurston spends most of the song picking behind the bridge while using a whammy bar to lift the notes
up. Although he's picking behind the bridge, you can still hear the open notes that are sounding.
It sounds like his guitar is probably tuned to all Es - whether that's three low Es and then three mid Es
(no high Es), I'm not sure. For the sake of this tab, I've done two low Es and four matching middle Es,
but feel free to experiment.

I'll use X to indicate strings picked behind the bridge, and ^ to indicate when he has lifted the 
whammy bar (still picking behind the bridge). He lifts it a half step up to around F.

Depending on your guitar and how much string is behind the bridge, you may have to choose different 
strings to get the right "pitch" for the riff.

E----------------------------------
E----------------------------------
E----------------------------------
E----------------------------------
E---X-X-X--------------------------
E----------X--X-X--^-^-^-^-^-^-^---

As the song goes on, he gets a little looser with the figure, but not much. Around 2 minutes in he starts
striking more than just one string when he gets more aggressive with the whammy bar. By 3 minutes in
he's basically just strumming 3 or 4 strings behind the bridge instead of the single notes from the start.
                
B SECTION				03:47-04:37

Thurston starts by furiously trem picking the middle strings behind the bridge. At 3:55 he starts 
picking on the "right" side of the bridge, droning the middle Es. Around 4:05 he starts letting the 
low Es blend in too...

E--------------------
E--------------------
E---X------0-----/---
E---X------0-----/---
E---/------/-----0---
E---/------/-----0---

Then at 4:14 he actually starts fretting notes, still trem picking:

E---12----13--------14----15-----------------0---  bend the last notes up with the bar
E---12----13--------14----15-----------------0---    
E----/-----/--10-----/-----/--12-------/-----/---
E----/--------10-----/--------12-------/-----/---
E--------------/---------------/-------0---------
E--------------------------------------0---------

While you're picking the last open Es, start moving behind the bridge. This section ends with 
quick strumming behind the bridge of all open strings.
                 
C SECTION				04:37-05:28

Thurston plays basically the same riff he starts the song with, droning the strings behind the 
bridge til the end.


Last updated: 08/31/23

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