This chart will look wacky unless you
rotate your phone
1979
Smashing Pumpkins
Riff:
E---------------------------------------------------B---------------------------------------------------G---8-8-8-8-8-8-8-9-4-4-4-4-4-4---------------------D---x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-7-6-4-2-4-6-7-9-9-9-A---6-6-6-6-6-6-6-7-2-2-2-2-2-2-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-E---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0---------------------
Intro: Riff x1
w/Riff:
A Emaj7 E
Shakedown
1979
A
Emaj7 E
Cool kids never have the time
A Bsus4
On a live wire right up off the street
B
You and I should meet
A Emaj7 E
Junebug skipping like a stone
A Emaj7
E
With the headlights pointed at the dawn
A Bsus4 B
We were sure we’d never see an end to it all
E
Emaj7 Amaj7
And I don’t even care to shake these zipper blues
E Emaj7
Amaj7
And we don’t know Just where our bones
will rest
E Emaj7 Amaj7
To dust I guess Forgotten and
Bsus4 B
absorbed into the earth below
Resume Riff:
A Emaj7 E
Double cross the vacant and the bored
A
Emaj7 E
They’re not sure just what we have in the store
A Bsus4 B
Morphine city slippin dues down to see
E Emaj7 Amaj7
That we don’t even care as restless as we are
E Emaj7
Amaj7
We feel the pull in the land of a thousand
E Emaj7 Amaj7
Guilts and poured cement, lamented and
B C#m A
Assured to the lights and towns below
B C#m A
Faster than the speed of sound
B C#m A
Faster than we thought we’d go,
F# B
beneath the sound of hope
Resume riff:
A Emaj7 E
Justine never knew the rules,
A Emaj7 E
Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls
A
Emaj7 E
No apologies ever need be made,
A Bsus4 B
I know you better than you fake it to see
Repeat First Chorus
Resume riff
A Emaj7 E
The street heats the urgency of now
A E (hold)
As you see there’s no one around
This file is the author's own work and represents his interpretation of this song. It's intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.
The main riff to this song sounds great played on a solo acoustic guitar. Normally a melodic riff like this needs another musician backing you up, but the ringing open strings fatten up the sound and provide the low root notes you need. The catch is singing over it — first you've got to learn the riff so well you could play it while holding a conversation.