Need help figuring out chords of Springsteen acoustic peformance

[Pete'67]

Hi,

I have a hard time figuring out the chords in that song.

Is it standard tuning? D-shape with capo on 3rd fret sound right, but Bruce plays more of a C-shape. Or am I wrong?

Song seem to be in the key of F.

[stanron]

You are right about the C shapes with a capo at the fifth fret. It is in standard tuning. The first string seems to be permanently muted by the first finger.

Mostly the chords are C, Am and F with an occasional rare G chord.

Some of the F chords have a thumb over F bass note and others, more difficult to hear, just change the fourth and maybe the third strings. The Am chords are mainly distinguished by their bass notes. You might be able to work it out from this. If not, if you can link to a file which has the lyrics I'll attach chord symbols to it.

[Pete'67]

Thanks, stanron. That makes sense.
I'm just confused as he is using capo on 3rd fret. Maybe the guitar is tunes up by a whole step?

[stanron]

You're right. he is capoed at 3. I miss-read it at 5. It's unusual but I guess he is tuned up a whole step.

[JonPR]

I've got a funny feeling he's actually in drop D! (a whole step up).

Listen to 1:00 (after "into my hands") you hear an A bass note. If he was in standard tuning a whole step up (capo on 3) that would be open 6th string. In fact, you can see his thumb is clamped over the 5th fret.
The note is probably a mistake because it's out of key and doesn't suit the chord at that point. He was trying to mute that 6th and just happened to squeeze too hard.

You hear that A again at 1:09 on "promised land", following an in-key Bb which he seems to play with ring on 6th fret.

At 1:21, even clearer evidence. "I get up every morning" has a clear Bb bass note, and you see his ring finger on fret 6. The rest of the chord is an F shape (producing a Bb chord sound). If the tuning was standard (whole step up), then that shape would produce a Bb/C sound; fret 6th on 6th string would give a C note, not a Bb.

So my bet is the tuning is E-B-E-A-C#-E. Drop D a whole step up. It obviously makes this song more difficult - drop D doesn't suit shapes for key of C - but I'm guessing he set it for a different song, and didn't bother to change it for this song. Hence the struggle with muting (or failing to) the 6th, and the 3rd fret bass note for the IV chord.

[Pete'67]

Wow, that's amazing. Will try it out. Thanks a lot!

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Pete'67

Wow, that's amazing. Will try it out. Thanks a lot!

I'd call it weird rather than amazing. I was thinking (as I said) that he might have been in drop D for a previous tune and didn't bother to retune. But investigating chords in key of C in this tuning is interesting - it's not as difficult as I thought.

Firstly, your normal C chord (muted 6th) is of course the same. (And if you want C/E, you can fret 6th at fret 2 with your thumb, as Bruce does a couple of times, although its not clear whether he intended to.)

A G chord is different, but an easy enough shape (and familiar to anyone used to playing in drop D):
-3-
-0-
-0-
-0-
(5)- (can be muted with whatever finger frets the 6th)
-5-

Alternatively you could just leave the 6th open and key a G/D chord. (020003, or 020033)

The F chord is the interesting one - because this tuning enables you to avoid the dreaded F barre! Instead you play this (as Bruce does):
-x- mute with index (or maybe fret with index)
-1- index
-2- middle
-3- pinky
-x- (mute with ring)
-3- ring

For Am, you'd need to mute the 6th (again, normal in EADGBE). Em would need an additional finger:
-0-
-0-
-0-
-2-
-2-
-2- (or thumb?)

while Dm becomes really nice!

-1-
-3-
-2-
-0-
-0-
-0-

Still, another 6th-string change you might like to try for key of C is dropped C: CADGBE, which Dylan used on Love Minus Zero, which gives you a great low C root. http://dylanchords.info/05_biabh/love_minus_zero.htm