Terrific to finally learn the right chords. Thank you! I've always loved this song. Sylvia Fricker - of Ian and Sylvia fame - wrote the song in a bathtub in Greenwich village in 1961.
Wow! I am so impressed. I've heard so many attempts (and made so many, myself) to capture the surprisingly complex progression (s) in this song. You, my friend, have nailed it! And your clear video and chord grabbing makes it easy to learn -- finally. Thank you. Love the comment below about wearing horn rimmed glasses would be so right for this song.
Yes! Mike Stewart did have other songs, his brother wrote Daydream Believer (which WeFive declined before the Monkees got it)... Mike COMPLETELY rearranged the music and improved on the lyrics from Ian & Sylvia's awful first rendition of this song 'You Were On My Mind' to make it the best it could be (a favorite of millions). Mike was the musical genius, and the geekiest looking guy in his band. Beverly Bivens came to the band thru Mike's brother Dave's band, The Kingston Trio, one of whose members was dating Bev's big sister Barbara Bivens and made the suggestion they try her out. Random path to vocal genius!
JJ, I love it when you dig down deep into the archive and pull out these wonderfully obscure songs. Man how these tunes take me back to my early childhood growing up in the heydays of radio! Thanks!
Only one little mistake at the very end of song D run. No pinkie on the change. He simply removes index finger from the G string. The bottom 2 strings do not change. So D twice then open G string with bottom 2 not changing, and then back on D for final chord. Try it. Of course it sounds better on a 12 string. It was a great song back then. Still is.
Love this seemingly obscure pick you made. A boatload of wonderful memories I treasure from this era when I was 15 and we had our little garage band. JJ you are the great translator of cherished sounds of the past into guitar music we can play. As always your ear and translation is spot on accurate. Again ... thanks !
There's a great clip of them doing this live on the Hollywood Palace; there's three guitars (Ric and two Gibsons) and they are all capoed at the fourth fret!
The Ric is capoed on the second fret, the song is in the key of E and he is playing the first position D chord to match, another video shows him capoed on the third fret, when he appears to be in an E flat tuning.
Great job on a great song. Trivia tidbit: the mystery man, the drummer, is Jerry Granelli. Same guy who was playing on the famous Charlie Brown Christmas song. You're welcome!
JJ, if you close your eyes and forget about who is singing. Doesn't she remind you of Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders? Well she does with me. But, WOW! I haven't heard this song in YEARS! Could be showing my years but I still like the quirky British Pop from the '60's. After all I am pushing 30, hhmmmm. Well if you don't know me I can call myself 30, can't I?
This video really illustrated the value of a capo. I can barre all of the cords, but it is clearly easier with the capo on, just like it was originally done. Thank you.
JJ, just a general guitar question: Why do some guitarists tune down the electric guitar down a half step? Is there any obvious benefits from it or is it only for tonal purposes? I don't own an electric, that's why I'm curious.
Most Ric 360/12 players detune a semitone to reduce stress on the neck. John Hall, Ric's CEO, says it's unnecessary but Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, and other noted players do it and my 360/12 was detuned when it arrived from the factory.
I like the guitar love that the guy all the way on the right in the video of them 13 years ago playing this. I like how he hits the accents with a dramatic upstrum.
Awesome chords and tone! One difference might be to lift only the first finger from the D chord, so that the next chord is like a Gmaj7. It sounds strange but I think that's they way the electric guitarist played it originally.
Simply incredible. Will have to work hard on your video to learn the song, but it would be impossible for me without it. Thank you so much! I was 8 yr old when I first heard this song and loved ever since.
We Five had a second hit (#31 on the charts) with the old Kingston Trio song "Let's Get Together," which later became a smash for the Youngbloods. After that, the lead singer abruptly retired. We Five went on with a replacement but never had another success. "You Were on My Mind" was written by Sylvia Tyson of Ian and Sylvia fame. I wonder if part of We Five's trouble was in not writing their own hits. That royalty money can help keep you going.
Thank you for posting this! I requested this quite awhile ago because it is one of my all time faves! Beverly Bevins is absolutely adorable and utterly filled with joy singing this song. Nobody covers this song...ever! Gonna send this to my string men. Bless you!!
I had forgotten about this song and hearing it brought back the time during high school when I would listen to oldie radio stations a lot. Fun to hear forgotten tunes.
I followed your advice and watched the RU-vid videos. I'm pretty sure I heard (and saw) a regular F chord rather than the Fmaj7 you're playing. (You're obviously free to play it any way you want).
+Jon Forrest Some of them are regular F chords. But in the chorus, it's certainly Fmaj7. It's the defining chord of the song. You can hear that open E string clear as day.
As another commenter pointed out, this song was written and originally performed by Ian & Sylvia (a huge duo in Canada, not so much here, though "Four Strong Winds" got some play, and Neil covered it, of course, and "Someday Soon" was a hit for Judy Collins). The lead singer for We Five was Beverly Bivens, who I think still performs in the Bay Area. She became an avant garde singer a la Yoko. Seriously. And those are some lovely chord changes JJ.
I love this tune. You nailed it. 3 Videos popped up from them after I watched this. They had a Ricky 12. I think that adds a little depth. He made a different grab than seen here, but you averaged all the axes together. I get that. Love seeing the chord changes with a little flair (As always) Great tune!
This is the song that started the folk-rock genre. For anybody who is interested in knowing more about the history of that genre and this song in particular, read the book, “Wounds to Bind”.
What's on the corner that eased her pain...lol. Luved the tune ever since it came out. A Bay Area group w/ a great vocalist. Nice JJ. I just made the transition here...
+Badguitar Just re-listened to the original by Ian and Sylvia and they're more explicit: She goes the corner, gets drunk, throws up and goes back home. "I got drunk and I got sick and I came home again." I'm assuming there was a bar involved; it would be kinda pathetic otherwise.
+Badguitar That's some good homework there Badguitar. She could've been worse off ya know. fwiw: Ian's Martin was listed on ebay a few weeks ago for $13k IIRC?
