by JohnDSOTM » Sat Jun 16, 2007 11:05 am
I didn't read this thread, so sorry if this has been brought up, but does anyone know why Ten is the only available tab book?
I remember reading an issue of either Guitar World, or Guitar One a while back, and in the "forward" by the editor (an editor's blurb each month), he mentioned that when he was a kid, he saw The Who play in a small venue, and he was right in front of Pete Townshend. I guess this was around the time that Tommy came out. Anyway, he said Pete did something that he will never forget. During the intro to one of the songs (might have been PinBall Wizard), it became pretty obvious to Pete that there were a few guys down close that were trying to see what chords he was playing. Pete noticed this, and basically faced them straight on, without moving around, so they could see exactly what he was playing.
The reason he told that story, was because the blurb he was writing about had to do with the fact that a certain band had declined to allow the magazine to print any of their songs out in tab. Kind of like they didn't want everyone to know how they play it. Sounds dumb, but that was really the gist of the article.
He never said which band he was referring to, but I've always thought that, as much as it doesn't seem like them AT ALL, it might actually be Pearl Jam that he was referring to.
Case in point.......Ten is the only tab book available.......Guitar World and Guitar One (same publisher, I believe), have transcribed some PJ tunes, but only a few, and other than repeating previously transcribed songs from older issues, I have not seen a new PJ song in those magazines since that article. At one point, they obviously gave permission to have their songs transcribed. But, did they stop? Why nothing (other than Yellow Ledbetter) since Ten?
There are lots of other magazines that transcribe songs, but from what I have seen, PJ is noticeably absent from all of them.
Thoughts? Theories?
I'm a guitar hack, so tab books are a lot of fun (and helpful) for me, and not having anything available from one of my favorite bands kinda honks.