One of my favorite PJ songs.

A5 F5 Em

Tell em I'm driving
It's all right
Turn it on this wheel
Turn it on headlights
A hundred DIFFERENT BIBLES BY MY SIDE

In my white gown
I go flying down


A5 C5 (bend that C5 a little if you'd like)

Oh my eyes it cannot be
He said no it cannot be
all that time it cannot be
Heziszzzz said it cannot be



A5 F5 Em

Ghosts fly their asses off tonight
I'm just driving
till it dies

Tell em I'm driving it's all right
You tell him man I had a skin full (?)
You tell him man I couldn't sit still
Imagine your whole self is filled with light
Your voice ringing out
through the whole fucking town



A5 C5
Oh my eyes it cannot be
he said no it cannot be
all that time it cannot be
oh my eyes it cannot be



A5 F5 G5
You tell em I'm driving

A5 F5 C5
You tell em I'm driving

A5 F5 G5
You tell em I'm driving

A5 F5 C5
You tell em I'm driving


Some of those F5 --> Em sound like they switch places in some parts.
Positive and negative feedback is greatly appreciated.

I love that song, thank you for the accords, I'll try to do something with them!

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go around I'm doing good

thanks for adding this, love that song!!
hi by the way. : )

^Hi desertgirl.

Nico, right?

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God save PJ

sure is : )
Hi!

skin full - Scottish (maybe all of the U.K?): referring to having consumed a large quantity of alcohol

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how will you ever walk again...

Merci Beaucoup! PJ Harvey does so much complicated rythym. I've been trying to figure out hook. Has anybody got tips for me. It makes me wanna pull my hair out because I've had no luck, and most other songs on that album I've been able to figure out. Hook is very complicated.

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Can you use a hyper-dermic needle?

She jumps around from meter to meter in many songs. Hook starts out in 5, listen to the guitar not her singing! It then switches to 8. What's really peculiar is that there are no accents, just stomp-stomp-stomp-stomp-stomp.

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Click to see the PJ Harvey Gigography

ahhh thank you!!!

Besides figuring out the rythm i have additional problems Can you tell me how to recreate the guitar sound of hook? or even driving? The closest i get reminds me of heavy metal sound a little...i have a telecaster..

^ That's a tough one, the place to start is with her equipment list. Anyone have that handy?

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Click to see the PJ Harvey Gigography

i think your sound will still be off cause it was most likely recorded on tape so that'll warble the sound a bit.

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if there's a want for something new, you might find me at the start, or where it ends for you.

Man, I’m finding this forum way too late...

Hook is in standard tuning, not any kind of special D tuning. You can’t get that dissonant sound in the open D tuning because you need certain OPEN notes to vibrant against others and you have to be in the correct tuning, which is Standard. You can see her play it in a few live videos from the early years on YouTube. It’s dead simple, but you have to bend strings at certain points to create that vibrating dissonance that is emphasized by her Boss DS-1 pedal. I’ve also found that such bending happens much more easily on the semi hollow Gretsch guitar I just bought (similar to hers but not as good). I found that odd. But compared to any other guitar I’ve played, the strings on this thing bend like I’m a monster crushing it, ha. The Gretsch semi hollow sound is also essential to many of her songs. But a Telecaster comes close.

I’ve also figured out quite a bit of Driving and will post about it here soon.

Ha! There is no noticeable warbling of the sound on Hook, in either the demo or Steve’s 24-track recording. That just doesn’t happen that readily on tape, despite what you may have heard, especially in a professional studio.

The secret to Hook is all in getting the tone of the guitar pedal and amp correct—absolutely nothing to do with analog tape distortions.

Gretsch semi hollow body (Broadkaster 7609) + Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal + Marshall 800 or 900 series tube amp (but really any tube amp will get you there as long as it has a Gain knob on it).

Driving chords—

The A minor is actually voiced like this: 532x(0)x (the ‘minor’ note comes from the low C, played on the A string—the ‘3’ in that chord notation—and the open B string occasionally rings out against that C, albeit an octave higher, creating tension and a jazzy sound.

The F chord is really just 1xxxx1. I listened to this song about a hundred times this past week, sometimes 75% slowed-down, over and over and over again incessantly, obsessing over what notes I was hearing. I tried a number of different alternate tunings. But I came to the conclusion—and I think I’m correct—that it is in standard tuning, and the voicings you hear are only possible by muting several strings, which she does a lot here. The only two notes in the F are the low F and the high F. You hear the sound of the other, muted strings being struck but they don’t ring out. It’s quite an awkward endeavor and only possible if you practice fretting the low F note as lightly as possible, and creating a very slight arch with your index finger over the other strings, muting them all except the high e string, which you have to fret just enough for that note to ring out but taking care not to fret the B string, because you don’t want that C ringing out.

The 3rd chord is 2x24(0)x. This one is a little easier than the F chord but you still have to rely on your index finger to mute the A string. The highest note in this chord is the B—sometimes I think you hear her hitting the open B string and letting it ring out briefly, other times it seems like she’s just fretting the G string at the 4th fret. If you don’t want to fret the G string at the 4th fret but instead just rely on the open B string ringing out, you have to take care to mute the G string with your middle finger, which you’ll be using to the fret the D string at the 2nd fret. You also have to take care not to hit the high e string on this chord. I don’t think I hear it ringing out open at any point.

The “oh my eyes” chorus is a regular A minor—x02210 or 57755x—followed by a D5—x077xx—followed by the addition of a bass note A bent up to A#— and maybe just beyond—and back down to A. The addition of the bent bass note is easy if you fret the D5 with your 3rd and 4th fingers on the D and G strings at the 7th fret and use your index finger to fret the low A on the E string, 5th fret.

The single-notes bass riff heard on the second verse (“let the ghosts...”) and the post-climax is correct as notated upthread. Straightforward, the only trick is to get the phrasing of the slides correct.

The climax (“You tell him I’m drivin’!”) is also correct as notated above.