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L DOPA – Big Black
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Tabbed by: Ciarán Rooney
Email: lithiumv.prozac@hotmail.com
Tuning: Normal
“L Dopa” is the fourth song on Big Black’s final studio LP, “Songs About Fucking”. Like most of the
album, it’s short, fast, and noisy as hell. It’s about a sleeping sickness epidemic in the 1920s,
where people just slept for years and years, woke up as old people, their youths wasted away
without their actual realizing it – and all of them asked to be killed or else killed themselves.
Yeah, that’s Big Black for you. Here’s the tab.
Intro/Main Riff:
The intro is on a bass, so when it comes to playing the riff on guitar for the second
when it comes in, it’s just the same notes only with powerchords.
e|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-3-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-5-5-5-5--3-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-3-2-2-2-2--|
E|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-1-1-1-0-0-0-0-0-0--3-3-3-3-1-0-0-0-0-0-1-1-1-0-0-0-0--|
He plays several different harmonies over this riff, so if you’ve got an extra guitar
he can keep with the above riff. This is the first harmony; it sounds weird by itself but
fits into the actual song:
e|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-5-5-5-5-5-4-4-4-4-6-6-6-6-4-4-4-4----|
B|------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|------------------------------------------------------------------|
This harmony then goes straight into a third octave of the original main riff,
played on the high E.
[ Tab from: http://www.guitaretab.com/b/big-black/183253.html ]
e|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-1-1-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-3-3-3-3-1-0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0|
B|------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|------------------------------------------------------------------|
Chorus (of sorts):
e|------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-6-5-5-5-8-5-6-5-5-5-8-5-6-5-5-5-8-5-6-5-5-5-5--------------------|
The harmony of which goes:
e|------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9--------------|
G|------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|------------------------------------------------------------------|
The only different part of this song is the “solo” – if you can call it that – which is
some weird sounds played over what appears to be a D note on the bass, but who knows?
whack over muted strings and it’ll sound fine!
And that’s it. Here’s the lyrics:
I got a sickness sweet as a love note
I got a headache like a pillow
Called me Daisy, called me Daisy, called me Daisy, that one
Called me Daisy
I am a sweetheart
I am a prom queen
I am some puppies
What, Daisy?
What, Daisy?
Are we here now?
I am a horror
This is an old one
What, Daisy?
L Dopa fixed me, all right
| / slide up
| \ slide down
| h hammer-on
| p pull-off
| ~ vibrato
| + harmonic
| x Mute note
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