Marthas Harbour

(início)

#
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 16:16:19 BST
From: Wayne Ellis

(also available on the compilation 'Winter Words, Hits and Rareties')
Transcribed by Wayne and Duncan Ellis. (the Brothers Grimm).
                email *
The tuning for both guitars is: D G C F A D (from low to high)
(This is Standard tuning with reference to D, instead of E)

(With the sound of waves hitting the beach)

            I        Sit     by    the  Harbour

  A sea calls to     Me

            I        Hide   in   the    Water

  But I  need  to    Breathe

           You are   An ocean wave my   Love                 Crashing at the

  Bow      I am a    Galley slave my     Love               If only I could

  Find out the       Way                To sail  you              Maybe I'll

  Just stow          away

(With the sound of waves hitting the beach)

            I've     Been   run    aground

  So sad   for   a      Sailor

               I     Felt   safe   and   Sound

  needed    the        danger

        You are     An ocean wave my    Love               Crashing at the

 Bow     I am a      Galley slave my    Love               If only I could

  Find out the       Way                To  sail  you           Maybe I'll

  Just stow          Away

          You are    An ocean wave my   Love               Crashing at the

  Bow     I am a     Galley slave my    Love               If only I could

  Find out the       Way                To  sail  you           Maybe I'll

  Just stow             away

(With the sound of waves hitting the beach)

  Stowaway

 Stowaway
(With the sound of waves hitting the beach)

        / - slide up
       () - incidental note
        X - mute
            (but not enough for it to be an arpeggio)

The guitars are kept in standard tuning, but tuned a whole tone down
to 'D' instead of the normal 'E' reference. The tuning was derived
from the record, by listening for open strings.
If you don't want to play along to the record then 'standard' (in E)
is Ok, but the tone of the song will suffer, due to the higher string
tension.

Let all notes ring. The song meter is 4/4 time.
The verses use Guitar1 alone. The intro, choruses and interlude use
Guitar1 and Guitar2. The parts played by Guitar1 vary in note choice
and timing - in response to Julianne Regans voice.
There's no way to learn this verbatim. The 'trick' is to master the
basic shapes and play each with minor variations which fit with the
lyrics. We wrote it all down as there are some interesting variants
that give the song more dynamics and are worth stealing for your own
renditions. ASCII tab can't do the phrasing justice, so consult the
record whilst learning it.
The song works well as a solo piece, as you don't need 2 guitars to
play it - just selectively ignore the part played by Guitar2.
Tim Brecheno playing alone. Live examples of the song are available
from a few sources .....
There are numerous recordings of live radio broadcasts in circulation.
An easy one to find one is the 'BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert' CD, which
was recorded at Glastonbury 1989. This is on the Windsong International
label. The recording is pretty good, but has some flaws. (If you listen
very carefully you can hear low level 'clicks' which I assume are vinyl
imperfections on the transcription disc used.)
There are bootlegs available. One particularly worth looking out for
is 'Blessed by Angels' (on KTS). This is the only AAE bootleg CD I've
seen, sound quality is good, and contains 2 live versions of Marthas
Harbour. Track 3 is a recording from the 'Touched by Jesus' tour with
'The Church' guitarist Marty Wilson-Piper. This recording is from the
soundboard, everything is very clear - and is the best one to listen to
if you want to hear the song stripped of studio production. It isn't a
carbon copy of the album track (since MWP plays it) but its close. A
note to fellow 'anorac wearers' - this track is tuned to C# instead of
D. Track 8 has original guitarist Tim Brecheno playing, and is a fair to
average audience recording - but doesn't reveal as much as track 3.
This Transcription (c) Copyright DarkMusic 1995. ReVamped for '96.
This Transcription (and others) is also available at:
        http://*~mandy/tabs/*
Comments, corrections, requests and idle banter welcome.
          Wayne Ellis email *