On the Corporate Ghost DVD, there's a bonus clip of Mike Watt talking about how there would always be a "Lee song" on each SY record, and how cool it was to have a third voice in the mix. He goes on to liken him to George Hurley, but I'd say the oft-made George Harrison comparison is equally valid. It was always exciting when the "Lee song" popped up during your first listen to a Sonic Youth album, and Daydream Nation set a precedent for there possibly being two or even three! But what is a Lee song? There's two ways you can look at it, knowing that most of the band's material was written collectively as a group, sometimes even recorded fully instrumentally before they'd decided who'd sing it. Some of these group compositions ended up with Lee as the vocalist, though they may have an identifiable foundation based on Thurston's opening riff ("Skip Tracer" or "Hoarfrost" for example). And then, the true Lee song, which we can confidently deduce was probably rooted in chord changes or ideas that Lee worked out on his own and brought in to have the band flesh out (I'd suggest "Eric's Trip" "Lee #2" "Wish Fulfillment" and perhaps "Rats"). It doesn't matter either way, but it's interesting to consider how some of the "Lee songs" were an obvious collaboration (witness the real-time construction of "Paper Cup Exit" on the enhanced Sonic Nurse disc), and some were a glimpse into the singer-songwriter mind that we'd have to wait until 2012 to hear a complete album from. A whole damn album of "Lee songs"! This week we'll be looking at the two other songs for Karen (with all respect to the drummer from Downey).
"Karen Koltrane" made its first live appearance on October 6th, 1997 at a release party for Jim Jarmusch's film Year of the Horse, which followed Neil Young and Crazy Horse on their Broken Arrow tour. Sonic Youth played a set of six new instrumentals, most of which they'd been playing here and there over the previous six months. "Karen Koltrane" was the only debut that Monday night at CBGB, but the show was notable for another reason: the band played as a trio. As Thurston explained at the start, Lee was "out on a poetry slam in Europe" with William Hooker, so all songs were performed in a two-guitar and drum arrangement. It's an interesting listen for this reason, but I tend to think of "Karen Koltrane" being officially premiered a month later when they played a "Perspectives Musicales" set at the Avery Fisher Hall. This show was a culmination of the year's efforts, presenting a mostly instrumental peek at their forthcoming record, which was still six months away. A handful of songs had already seen release on SYR discs like "Anagrama" or what was then known as "Proud Marie" (aka "Slaapkamers Met Slagroom", eventually "The Ineffable Me"), or future single "Sunday", initially recorded for the Suburbia soundtrack. "Woodland Ode" and "French Tickler" were unveiled, and "Karen Koltrane" was played as a quartet for the first time, opening the show. A program was given to the audience revealing the set list and each instrument everyone used, including Steve! I remember somebody sharing RealAudio files of the individual songs, which my computer wouldn't play. I had to sweet talk a relative into letting me use theirs, and dragged my family's giant stereo over to dub them from computer to cassette. In hindsight I'm sure the quality was dubious, but I worshipped that tape, and I couldn't wait for that album. I'd heard some of the Washing Machine songs live before the record, but this time I felt intimately familiar with every composition. Which can sometimes backfire, if you refer to last week's "Female Mechanic Now On Duty" piece.
Part of the excitement was imagining who would sing each song, which was settled when they played at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 19th, 1998. This was the first time they played all of the new material with vocals, revealing that like the previous album, Lee had two features: "Hoarfrost" (formerly "Woodland Ode") and "Karen Koltrane". I didn't hear the tape at the time, but listening now I can tell you that this is the only show where Lee sang the final verse ("Karen, you're hanging on the line..."). In all subsequent performances, they would end the song instrumentally. That final verse is one of my favorite passages on the album, with Thurston playing a hyper-phased harmonic version of the intro figure, Kim slowing her riff to a creeping crawl, Steve abandoning his clay drum beat for some cymbal washes and light tom work, and Lee augmenting his melody with piercing bursts of either ring mod or synth noise (he would bring a Sequential Graphics Pro-One synthesizer out during the post-"Death Valley" improvisations on the A Thousand Leaves tour, and in the May 1998 issue of Guitare & Claviers he acknowledges playing keyboard parts on the record). The song abruptly cuts, sounding literally like the tape ran out, giving way to nearly a minute of SYR-style noise. I assume the tape did cut on their favorite take and they just found a way to make it work. Live, however, they abbreviated this final verse, with Thurston playing the open strings instead of harmonics, then strumming furiously behind the bridge while it all wound down.
"Karen Koltrane" was played at almost every single show in 1998, skipped only twice: the Tibetan Freedom Concert and the Rockwave Festival. When they started playing an even balance of old and new material on their February 1999 European tour, it still made every set but one. Absent for the April 1st show of future SYR4 material, and a unique June set heavy on instrumentals and improvisation, it returned for one unexpectedly final bow in Berkeley, California on July 2nd. This was a cleverly designed show, opening with some "classics" before moving into a small portion of A Thousand Leaves material, followed by two brand new instrumentals, and closing with more classics. Presumably they'd have done a similar structure for their next show two days later, but a truckload of stolen gear called for a change of plans. That left "Karen Koltrane" unceremoniously laid to rest, never to be performed in public again. A year later, on July 22nd, 2000, I heard them soundchecking it from outside the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, but I guess it never quite took off.
Imagine my surprise a couple of years later when I was handed the set list after the band's epic headlining set to close out the All Tomorrow's Parties festival at UCLA, which they had curated for the first time. They played seven brand new songs, most of which I knew from the October 7th, 2001 show at the Bowery Ballroom, which they'd filmed and shared online. One, an instrumental known as "Dirge" (possibly "Dirge Overkill"?), had been played with vocals for the first time. I'd spoiled myself on the vocalist by eavesdropping on that soundcheck, but the set list revealed that the song was now called "KAREN II". What! Typically the usage of "II" in a working title indicated a musical similarity to a previous tune ("Kool Thing" was originally "DV II", a nod to its "Death Valley" tuning; "Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit" was "HYPER II", a nod to "Hyperstation"), but in this case it wasn't referring to the music but the song's lyrical focus. I ran into Lee at a Seattle solo gig a few days later and he confirmed that the full title was (for the time being) "Karen Revisited".
Not too much later, he began referring to the song as "Karenology". The Murray Street track list was circulating, with the "Karen Revisited" title, but I think he was using "Karenology" before the record was even out. It was the centerpiece of the album, the longest track at just over 11 minutes, and had changed somewhat since that Bowery premiere the previous October. That initial version was basically three verse/chorus repeats followed by the lengthy noise-heavy outro, which itself had a series of various parts that wove in and out. On the record, this would be reduced to two verse/chorus segments, with a new section inserted: "Top hats and tails for thrills..." followed by "We kissed, time slipped..." and returning to the main riff with Lee calling Karen's name before the complex majesty of the outro erupted. On the record, this ending sounds slightly more dense and processed than the live interpretations, sinking deep into a sea of noise that gives way to some of the more identifiable melodic riffs played by each member. A track called "Loop Cat" from the You Can Never Go Fast Enough compilation (later collected on The Destroyed Room) demonstrates some of the underlying elements at play here, crediting Jim with the live processing of various tracks to create something new. Per Jim in the November 2002 issue of Guitar Player: "You don't always need processors or pedals to create interesting effects in the studio. For example, in the middle section of "Karen Revisited" from the new album, there were two or three guitar feedback tracks that were really close in pitch, so I pumped them loudly through a P.A. system and recorded that with room mics. The result was natural ring modulation, which occurs whenever you put frequencies together that are very close in pitch." "Loop Cat" actually restarts at 3:13, offering two different views of the same passage. You can hear some of Lee's dreamy arpeggiated chord changes, as well as some of Thurston's plinky joiner riff that cuts the droning noise in the live arrangement.
I remember when Murray Street first leaked, there was some kind of digital error present when "Karen Revisited" was ripped, and it manifested as this choppy motorboat sound that almost perfectly synched with Steve's mechanical rhythmic descent, leaving many guessing as to whether it was part of the actual track (now most CD-Rs from 20 years ago will recreate that sound if played!). Those acquainted with the October version could hear that they'd really taken the outro to new lengths in the studio, but may have also noticed something familiar: the final two minutes are actually taken directly from the Bowery set (unlike "Female Mechanic", they left some crowd noise in as a clue). I'm ashamed to say it took me 22 years to notice, but they apparently slowed the live recording down by about half a step when they tacked it on to the album version. You can hear the proper pitch on the official release of that show or the video below, originally shared on sonicyouth.com back in 2001.
After playing the song a few times with vocals, Lee modified his guitar part to presumably make it easier to sing and play. On the record, he uses a metal slide to make wild noise during the song's chorus, but switched to playing root notes and just using his hand to do the long descending slide over the third line. Early attempts such as ATP or the "Rehearsin' For Ya" webcast they did prior to the Murray Street tour still utilize the slide, but I don't think it lasted long (the additional melody he plays during the verse of "Saucer-Like" was similarly reduced once he was tasked with singing it every night). It was played at almost every show in 2002 and 2003, including a live radio session on KCRW that went so haywire it led to Lee proclaiming they'd "totally fucked up!" on air, prompting them to restart the song (like "Saucer-Like", the odd amount of repetitions seemed to throw Thurston off sometimes). During an equally wacky version two years later on the Nurse tour in Portland, where it served as a bridge between "Pattern Recognition" and "New Hampshire", Thurston launched into the opening riff at half speed, which the band attempted to match with somewhat disastrous results (cool segue into "New Hampshire" though!). It's worth mentioning that this is actually how Thurston originally played the riff back on December 13th, 1998 when he did a very loose acoustic set with David Nuss and Matthew Hayner roughly following along. It was extremely skeletal, but the verse and chorus riffs were already sewn together. On the Nurse tour, the song was no longer a staple, appearing only 10 times in 2004, and played one final time on March 17th, 2005 in Tokyo, Japan, three years to the day it was premiered with vocals at UCLA.
That's not quite the end of the "Karenology" story, though. When Lee played a solo acoustic set at the Midi Festival in July 2010, he closed with it, and then resurrected it with his band The Dust when he was touring for his first solo record Between the Times and the Tides. When the follow-up Last Night on Earth was out, he no longer reached back into his Sonic Youth catalog, focusing on his two solo albums and an assortment of covers.
So, that's what I can tell you about these two songs for Karen. Sometimes I think I'm just scraping the surface of these song's stories based on what I can glean from live recordings and interviews and my own memories, so I thought perhaps I'd see if Lee himself had any comments. I'm thrilled to report that he did, so please enjoy this quick Q&A with Lee Ranaldo about "Karen Koltrane", "Karenology", and the difference between a Lee song and a "Lee song".
Our music was mostly constructed through group play – only rarely was a song brought in somewhat fully formed, so it wasn’t unusual for any one of us to be singing songs that we all wrote together – the music developed on it’s own and lyrics came later. Thurston would bring in riffs and points of entry/starting points but I don’t think he ever came in with a ‘demo’ of a song. We were never a band where one of us came in and said, ‘hey I’ve got a song, it goes like this’ and start playing and singing it. We just didn’t work like that, although occasionally one of mine, as you say, would have been developed and demo’d at home before I brought them in. “Beauty Lies” was one of those, for sure. Aside from home demos of a few of mine, I don’t really think there are many (or any?) demos of the rest of our catalog, or, if there are, I’ve never heard or heard of them.
For the Avery Fisher Hall show we played mostly instrumental versions of new works-inprogress – I think we thought the idea of playing instrumental music in that ‘ proper concert hall’ was a cool move. I’m not sure if many of those instrumentals were already claimed with lyrics/vocals in progress at the time or not. I’d have to go back to session tapes for A THOUSAND LEAVES to determine that for sure. It was consistent with our usual way of working – which was to build our instrumental compositions, which sometimes took many weeks or work to get ‘right’ – before any singing happened. In fact often no vocals were written or attempted until the music was finalized, and often, recorded, at which point songs would be claimed and lyric writing would begin. This meant that most of the time the band never heard any lyrics until the music was set. The title came out of studio banter, to the best of my recollection – one of those phrases that popped out during a rehearsal, which I liked and which stuck and provided a framework for the lyric writing.
- "Karen Koltrane" was last played live at the Berkeley show right before you had your gear stolen. It may have been on its way out anyway, but was there a reason it was immediately shelved? Perhaps the loss of the Maestro ring modulator which seemed to also bury "Starfield Road"?
There’s really no telling why some songs had a long performance life and others didn’t. Some were easy and fun to play, others more difficult. As our standard m.o. was to mostly play our most recent album collection, many songs were simply jettisoned to make room for the next batch as they came along. Certainly having lost certain important pieces of gear in the ’99 theft may have had something to do with it. “Starfield Road” was certainly one of those, maybe “Karen Koltrane” was too.
- However, I heard you rehearsing "Karen Koltrane" at soundcheck on July 22nd, 2000 (west coast NYC GHOSTS tour). It was never played in a public set, but do you remember trying to work out a version with Jim, presumably with him on bass?
I sort of remember trying to work it up with Jim – it was probably at a point where I wanted to have another possible number or two, to vary my one-or-two vocals songs per set instead of being limited to the same ones every night. It wasn’t always easy to get the band to go back and learn older songs while we were rushing headlong into new material all the time.
Not sure about the organ question, but as stated above, we often worked up the songs instrumentally until they were fully formed. I think we’d each ‘claimed’ some of them for vocalizing, and shortly thereafter Kim and I ‘traded’. I’m not sure if she was getting stuck on how to approach “Karenology” or if it was that she had an idea for “Sympathy…”.
- "Karenology" is one of only two Sonic Youth songs that I'm aware of you playing with your solo band. What inspired you to choose that particular song, and how different was it to play with a new bassist and guitarist?
The Dust played both “Karenology” and “Genetic”, I believe. They were 2 songs that I felt deserved a longer life and that hadn’t been played much, or at least in a long time. “Karenology”, in particular, I always thought was a really good song, really fun one to sing, and at that time my solo material was only the TIMES AND TIDES record, so we needed a few more songs. If we were going to attempt any SY material I wanted it to be less well-known songs, I didn’t want to be playing “Eric” or “Joni” or “Mote” with my band as they had been heard a lot. It was different to play them with a different group, but of course Steve was still on drums so he and I had a previous connection around them, and Alan (Licht) in particular really fit in well on those numbers. We definitely had a few renditions of “Karenology”, in particular, that were on fire, I do remember a couple shows where that song really took off.
- You changed the title of "Karen Revisited" to "Karenology" before Murray Street was even released. What prompted that, and did you ever consider changing any other titles? I know "Lee #2" became "Letter to Thom" at the Midi Festival in 2010.
Not sure if there were other titles that were considered for changing – certainly “Lee #2” was always a working title and more correctly named “Letter to Thom” or “Thom Letter” (first line: ‘Thom, these days I feel so displaced, nothing feels like anything….’). With “Karen Revisited”, the song was definitely written as a ‘sequel’ of sorts to Karen Koltrane, and I think ‘revisited’ helped imply that. I was thinking of the song “Bluebird Revisited” on STEPHEN STILLS 2, which updated his Buffalo Springfield song “Bluebird” (moreso than Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”, as some have thought). But I think I also felt that the title was a little pedestrian, somehow, and ‘Karenology’ tied it’s name to Charlie Parker’s “Ornithology”, which I was listening to around the time. I thought it tied in nicely with the previous ‘jazz reference’ of Koltrane…
- Speaking of the Midi Festival show, you had sent me the set list you'd originally intended to play, but had "seriously over-calculated" how many songs you'd be able to fit into your 40-minute slot. You asked me not to publish this back in July 2010, would you be opposed to me sharing it now? It's jaw-dropping in theory (did you ever record a rehearsal or anything??) but particularly interesting since you said "I was really looking fwd to playing the 2 Karens side-by-side, but obviously I over-planned on this one." You did end up closing with "Karenology", but I'd love to know how a solo acoustic "Karen Koltrane" may have sounded.
Lost
Hey Joni
Eric's Trip
Wishfulfilment
Rats
What We Know
Letter to Thom
new song #2 I wonder what this was… ?
Walkin Blue
Karen Koltrane
Karenology
Schizophrenia
In reserve:
Here
Mote
It’s fine w me if you want to use that set list now. I do believe there are some rehearsal tapes that I made before that show – which was technically my first acoustic solo show, which felt like a big deal at the time, felt like going out on a limb without a net! I am sure there is a tape of an acoustic “Karen Koltrane” around somewhere!
Yes, ‘Karen’ was a real person I knew in the 70s and both songs were written about her. Someone I knew a long time before Sonic Youth started – an obsessive love affair, no longer the stuff of childhood, with someone who had a profound influence on me at a time when I was still forming…
- Did you ever consider making it a trilogy?
No! But I sometimes find that fixating on a character when writing lyrics can be a useful device (Pipeline, Eric, Joni, Mote, Wish Fulfillment, Skip Tracer, Hoarfrost, Xtina As I Knew Her, The Rising Tide and Humps would be other examples).
- Any other thoughts on the songs that I may not have considered?
None that I can think of. Some songs are time capsules of particular moments – those 2 songs came at times when certain scenes or tableaux with someone from my past were playing back in my mind.
The "Karenology" transcription leans towards live versions for the outro, but does include elements of the studio version. Of course, much of the outro is live anyway, and on this version Jim switched from bass to a guitar in GGDEGB for the climax. However, my recollection of live versions from the 2002 tour is that he would use a contact mic on his amp and process that through various effects rather than returning to guitar. I recommend checking out the version they filmed for PBS Soundstage on May 7th, 2003. It didn't make the broadcast edit, but the whole set is out there and is a great road map for following everyone's paths and patterns. I'd also like to include a live version from an in-store they did at Amoeba Records in San Francisco on August 28th, 2002. This was filmed by The Wendy Hour and is an awesome document of a very cool afternoon - check out everyone packed into that giant record store to see Sonic Youth play! It was a lot of fun to witness, and I'm pretty sure this is one of the longest "Karenology" performances (it would typically clock in around 10 and a half minutes, this one pushes 12!). Many thanks to Bob for taping this and letting me share. Most of all, a colossal THANK YOU! to Lee Ranaldo for taking the time to answer my questions! It means a lot to get his insight on these two songs, which have always been personal favorites in a catalog where it's safe to say I have a lot of favourites. Let me know what you think!
"KAREN KOLTRANE"
LAYOUT
A - B - A - B - C - D - E - A - F
KIM
DADGGB
CENTER
THURSTON
CGDGBB
RIGHT
LEE
GGDAGA#
LEFT
A SECTION 00:00-01:16
Thurston:
B---------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------- etc
G---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---
C---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---
Lee comes in when he starts singing. Play w/ delay:
A#---5-----4--------------------5-----4---------------------
G-------3-----2--5\8---------------3-----2--5~~~------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------5-5-5-5---
G-------------------------------------------------5-5-5-5---
A#---5-----4--------------------5-----4---------------------
G-------3-----2--5\8---------------3-----2--5~~~------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------- x 2
G----------------------5-5-5-5------------------------------
G----------------------5-5-5-5------------------------------
Kim:
B--------------3--------------3--------------5--------------5---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3---0-0-0-5--5-5---0-0-0-5--5-5---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3---0-0-0-5--5-5---0-0-0-5--5-5--- x 4
D---------------------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------
B SECTION 01:16-01:50
Thurston:
B---21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21---
B---20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20--- etc
G-----------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------
C-----------------------------------------
Lee turns on his ring modulator w/ delay and improvises around the 5th to 7th frets,
then up to the 22nd.
Kim:
B-----------------------------------------------------------------
G---17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17---
G---17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17--- etc
D-----------------------------------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------------
A SECTION 01:50-02:33
Thurston:
B---------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------- etc
G---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---
C---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---0-0--0---
Lee:
A#---5-----4--------------------5-----4---------------------
G-------3-----2--5\8---------------3-----2--5~~~------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------- x 2
G----------------------5-5-5-5------------------------------
G----------------------5-5-5-5------------------------------
Kim continues with that note:
B-----------------------------------------------------------------
G---17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17---
G---17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17--- etc
D-----------------------------------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------------
B SECTION 02:33-03:56
Thurston:
B---21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21--- etc
B---20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20-20---
G----------------------------------------- this time he steps on random MXR boxes while he plays
D-----------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------
C-----------------------------------------
Lee turns on his ring modulator and improvises around the 9th to 12th frets w/ delay.
Kim continues with that note:
B-----------------------------------------------------------------
G---17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17---
G---17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17-17--- etc
D-----------------------------------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------------------------
Around 2:42 she starts to switch between these notes:
B--------------------------------------------------
G---17-17-19-19-19-19-19-17-17-17-17-19-19-19-19---
G---17-17-19-19-19-19-19-17-17-17-17-19-19-19-19--- etc
D--------------------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------
A few times she lets the open D and A strings bleed in.
C SECTION 03:56-04:59
Thurston:
B----------------------
B---------------------- sometimes he adds open strings to the picking
G-------7--------------
D---5--------------9--- x 14
G--------------7-------
C----------------------
B-------------------------------
B-------------------------------
G---5---------------------------
D-------7--------7-7-7----------
G----------------------9--9-9---
C----------0-0-0----------------
Lee holds this shape when he starts singing:
A#--------4---4---0---
G-------0-------0----- repeat variation
A-----5---------------
D---5-----------------
G---------------------
G---------------------
Kim:
B--------------3--------------3---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3--- x 6
D---------------------------------
A---------------------------------
D---------------------------------
D SECTION 04:59-06:42
Thurston:
B--------------------
B----------7/5-0-----
G-------7--------5--- x 51 around the 30th time he starts strumming more aggressively
D--------------------
G---5\7-7------------
C--------------------
Lee:
A#---------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------
A---------10-12-9-10------------9-10-12-10----- repeat variation
D---10-12------------7----10-12------------7---
G---------------------------------------------- add slides between 10-12 sometimes
G----------------------------------------------
Around 6:00 his picking gets more distorted and intense, and an overdubbed guitar plays this
harmonic figure:
A#----------------------*12*---
G------------------*12*--------
A--------*12*-*12*-------------
D---*12*-----------------------
G------------------------------
G------------------------------
Eventually his main guitar is just shaking notes around the 12th fret while the harmonic part
plays.
Kim:
B----------------------------------------
G---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7\9-9--0--- x 4
G---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7\9-9--0---
D----------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------
Then she starts playing the open Gs and then adding the same 7-9th fret notes:
B----------------------------------------
G---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-7\9-9--0---
G---0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-7\9-9--0--- repeat variation
D----------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------
She shakes it up more as she plays it, sometimes hitting the 11th or 13-15th frets, but always
that steady open G with the 9th fret accents.
E SECTION 06:42-07:11
Thurston turns to 7th fret harmonics:
B---*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*---
B---*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*-*7*--- x 2
G---------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------
C---------------------------------------------------------------------
Then he changes to:
B---------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------------- x 2
G---*7*-*7*--*7*---*7*-*7*--*7*---*7*-*7*--*7*---*7*-*7*--*7*---
C---*7*-*7*--*7*---*7*-*7*--*7*---*7*-*7*--*7*---*7*-*7*--*7*---
Let the very last note ring for a few beats before going to the next section.
Lee:
A#----------------------*12*~~~~~------------------------ shake the A# note w/ bar
G------------------*12*----------------------------------
A--------*12*-*12*---------------------------------------
D---*12*-------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*---
G--------------------------------------------------------
w/ variations and such, then:
A#---------------------------------------------------------------------------*12*~~~~~---
G-----------------------*12*~~~~----------------------------------------*12*-------------
A--------*12*-*12*--------------------------------------------*12*-*12*------------------
D---*12*-----------*12*----------------------------------*12*----------------------------
G----------------------------------*12*-*12*-*12*-*12*-----------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim lightly plays the 12th fret. She may also mix in 12th fret harmonics.
B-----------------------------------------
G---12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12--- etc
G---12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12-12---
D-----------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------
A SECTION 07:11-08:27
Thurston turns on his phaser:
B---------------------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------------------------- x 9
G---*12*-*12*--*12*---*12*-*12*--*12*---*12*-*12*--*12*---*12*-*12*--*12*---
C---*12*-*12*--*12*---*12*-*12*--*12*---*12*-*12*--*12*---*12*-*12*--*12*---
The final repeat breaks up on the 3rd "beat" when the tape runs out.
In live versions, he would just play the open strings instead of harmonics, and end the song by
strumming behind the bridge.
Lee starts with some ring mod noise (and possibly a synth overdub down the center?) then plays his
main riff under the vocal:
A#---5-----4--------------------5-----4--------------- w/ delay
G-------3-----2--5\8---------------3-----2--5~~~------
A----------------------------------------------------- x 2
D-----------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------
A#---5-----4-------------------------------------
G-------3-----2--5\8-----------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------5-5-5-5-----5-5-5-5---- (tape cuts out)
G-------------------------5-5-5-5-----5-5-5-5----
Kim:
B----------------3----------------3----------------5----------------5---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-5--5-5-5---0-0-0-5--5-5-5---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-5--5-5-5---0-0-0-5--5-5-5--- x 3
D-----------------------------------------------------------------------
A-----------------------------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------3----------------3----------------3----------------3---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---
G---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3---0-0-0-3--3-3-3--- the tape breaks up
D----------------------------------------------------------------------- on the final notes
A-----------------------------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------------------------------
F SECTION 08:27-09:17
Just make noise.
text + tab by Chris Lawrence
"KARENOLOGY"
LAYOUT
A - B - A - B - C - D - A - E
KIM
DADABB
RIGHT
THURSTON
CGDGCD
CENTER
LEE
GGDGGA
LEFT
JIM
EADG/GGDEGB
CENTER
A SECTION 00:00-00:37
Thurston:
D---0--0--0-0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0--0-0-0-0--0--0--0---
C---2--2--2-2\7-7-7-7--7-7-7--7-7-7-7--7--7--7---
G---0--0--0-0-0-0-0-0--8-8-8--8-8-8-8--0--0--0--- x 2 as intro
D-------------------------------------10-10-10---
G------------------------------------------------ x 6 w/ vocal
C------------------------------------------------
Lee:
Intro:
A---------------
G---------------
G---12~~~~~~----
D---------------
G---------------
G---------------
Verse:
A------------------------------------------------15-15^17---
G-----------------------------------------------------------
G---12~-12~--14^12^14^12^14^12------------------------------ play variation x 4
D-----------------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------12^14^12^14^12--------------
G-----------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes he doesn't go up to that last high note, he just stays at the 12th fret and
picks the GGA strings.
During live versions, he mostly just sticks to playing the 12th fret.
Kim comes in when Lee starts singing. Light drive, keep the brightness/treble to a minimum.
B----------------12-x-7--7-7-0---
B----------------12-x-7--7-7-0---
A-------------------------------- x 6
D--------------------------------
A---5-5/12-12-12-----------------
D---5-5/12-12-12-----------------
Jim comes in when Lee starts singing:
G----------------------------------
D--------------------9--7-4--4-4--- x 6
A----------------------------------
E---3--3\10--10-10-----------------
B SECTION 00:37-00:55
Thurston:
D----------------------------------------------
C----------------------------------------------
G---12--12--12-12-12-12-12---6--6--6-6-5-5-5---
D---------------------------------------------- x 4
G---11--11--11-11-11-12-12---6--6--6-6-5-5-5---
C----0---0---0--0--0--0--0---0--0--0-0-0-0-0---
Lee:
On the record, Lee is using a slide for this whole section. He begins up past the
fretboard, near what would be the 24th fret, almost over the neck pickup. He picks
a bit, but the key point is the long descending slide he does during the 3rd rep
of the riff. He tried using the slide for live performances but changed pretty quickly
to the notes below, followed by just using his hand to replicate the sliding backwards
part:
A----------------------- slide backwards from high up ------------
G----------------------- while strumming high strings ------------
G----------------------- ------------
D--------------------------------------------------------------------
G---5----6----5----6----------------------------------------5----6---
G---5----6----5----6----------------------------------------5----6---
Kim:
B---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5---
B---7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5---
A------------------------------------- x 4
D-------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------
Jim plays a pretty different part on the album than he does on subsequent live versions:
G----------------------------------------
D---4\5--5\10---12--12--12-12-14-14-14--- x 4
A----------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------
Live version:
G--------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------
A---3--3--3-3-3-6-6---\9-9-9--9-9-10-10-10--- x 4
E--------------------------------------------
A SECTION 00:55-01:22
Play riff 6 times.
B SECTION 01:22-01:40
C SECTION 01:40-02:07
Thurston plays the main riff, but starts the first note an octave higher:
D----0--0--0--0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0--0-0-0-0--0--0--0---
C---14-14-14-14\7-7-7-7--7-7-7--7-7-7-7--7--7--7---
G----0--0--0--0-0-0-0-0--8-8-8--8-8-8-8--0--0--0--- x 6
D---------------------------------------10-10-10---
G--------------------------------------------------
C--------------------------------------------------
Lee:
A-----------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------
G---12~-12~-10-12-12~~--10-12-12~--10-12-12b-r12-10--- play variation x 2
D-----------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------
When he starts singing change to:
A-----------------------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------------------0---
G---12~-12~-10-12-12~~--10-12-12~-----------------------------0--- play variation x 4
D----------------------------------------8^10\12/10-8^10\12~~-----
G-----------------------------------8^10--------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------------------
Kim holds a G at the 5th fret of the low D string til Lee starts singing, then she plays:
B--------------------------------
B-----0--------------0-----------
A--------------------------------
D---7--------7-----7-----12\13--- x 2
A---------5----------------------
D--------------------------------
Live, she played something more like:
B---------------------------------
B---------------------------------
A---------------------------------
D---7\9---9/7-7-----7\9---9\13---- x 2
A---------------------------------
D---------------------------------
Jim holds G to start:
G-------
D-------
A-------
E---3---
"Top hats and tails for thrills.."
G----------
D-----5---- x 4 (he may play the G more on the album, but he'd let it ring live)
A---5------
E----------
D SECTION 02:07-02:26
Thurston keeps playing the alternate version of the riff:
D----0--0--0--0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0--0-0-0-0--0--0--0---
C---14-14-14-14\7-7-7-7--7-7-7--7-7-7-7--7--7--7---
G----0--0--0--0-0-0-0-0--8-8-8--8-8-8-8--0--0--0--- x 4
D---------------------------------------10-10-10---
G--------------------------------------------------
C--------------------------------------------------
Somebody is adding distorted blasts at this point in the mix, whether it's another guitar or
Thurston. He's definitely strumming without the laidback rhythm of the earlier repetitions.
Lee:
A------------8\10-10~~---\12~~~~--12-12\13~~---13-13-13\15~~~--15-15-15\17~~-17~17~17~-- hold last note
G-------0---10\12-12~~---\14~~~~--14-14\15~~---15-15-15\17~~~--17-17-17\19~~-19~19~19~-- and bend while
G-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/--- picking
D---12~~----------------------------------------------------------------------------/--- furiously!
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim:
B---13-----13--10------13-----13--10---10-10-10---
B---13-----13--10------13-----13--10---10-10-10--- play variation twice
A-------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------
A-------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------
On the second time, it sounds like she adds a thicker distortion that makes it a little messier.
During live versions she would focus on sliding into that 10th fret note, so don't worry too much
about the precision.
Jim starts strumming E and then F, then slides into the next section.
"We kissed..." "See you (come home) some time.."
G------- -------
D---2--- etc ---3--- etc
A------- -------
E---0--- ---1---
A SECTION 02:26-03:01
Thurston keeps playing the main riff with a faster picking style and more distortion:
D----0--0--0--0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0--0-0-0-0--0--0--0---
C---14-14-14-14\7-7-7-7--7-7-7--7-7-7-7--7--7--7---
G----0--0--0--0-0-0-0-0--8-8-8--8-8-8-8--0--0--0--- x 8
D---------------------------------------10-10-10---
G--------------------------------------------------
C--------------------------------------------------
Lee:
On the album he seems to just continue picking around w/ delay (possibly using a slide)
but on live versions when singing "KAaAAaAAREEEN" he'd hold this chord:
A---10--- moving it up to: ---17--- and then back to the first chord
G---12--- ---19---
G----0--- ----0---
D----0--- ----0---
G----0--- ----0---
G----0--- ----0---
Kim:
B----------------12-x-7--7-7-0---
B----------------12-x-7--7-7-0---
A--------------------------------
D-------------------------------- x 8
A---5-5/12-12-12-----------------
D---5-5/12-12-12-----------------
Jim doesn't double Kim's part this time, he sticks to the low string:
G-------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------- x 8
E---3--3\10--10-10---3--3\10--10-10-10-10---
E SECTION 03:01-11:10
The outro on the album has a lot of dense studio layers before seguing into a 2-minute
clip from the song's live premiere on October 7th, 2001. This was one of few times Jim
actually played guitar on the outro, and if you watch the video you can see he's playing
some atmospheric stuff, doubling Kim, etc. The problem is that they slowed the tape down
a half step lower for this section on the record, so it's not the most pitch accurate guide
unless you're specifically trying to recreate the album version.
I would recommend checking out any live version, particularly the PBS Soundstage performance
from May 7th, 2003. It is very easy to follow everyone's changes, and once Jim takes the bass
off he just does effects processing so we can remove him from the equation for transcription
purposes. Many of these parts are heard on the album version, but they're less focused or not
as prominent in the mix. They do kinda blow the transition from the "song" into the "outro"
but that's okay.
The PBS version definitely demonstrates a road-tested song, but if you scope out the live version
on the Chicago bandcamp release from the August 2002 tour, it's actually quite concise at just over
8 minutes, without the extreme noise exaggerations heard on later versions.
This tab heavily follows the outro of the PBS version, and rather than breaking it up into
E and F and G and H sections that are ambiguous on the record itself (whose timestamps I'm using),
I will just treat it as one massive multi-step passage.
Thurston:
Thurston begins by hitting the low C string and letting it drone for about 20 seconds (on the record).
Then they break into a hot noise free-for-all, which is basically guitar meets amp.
Thurston cuts the noise by coming in with a clean pattern like this:
D---12--------- ---14---------
C-------------- over and over then: -------------- repeat both riffs w/ variations
G------12--0--- ------14--0---
D-------------- --------------
G-------------- --------------
C-------------- --------------
Sometimes he hits other open strings, the key is to play the fretted notes very staccato.
On the album, that riff starts to be audible around 4:55 or so and continues with slight variations
until just past the 7-minute mark, when he turns on distortion and starts strumming heavily.
The live versions grow in intensity, as he starts scrubbing his hand over the pickups, etc. He runs his
hand up and down the fretboard, tweaks his whammy bar a bit, and basically just makes a glorious racket.
As he winds his way down to the nut, he starts rapidly picking the low C string, accenting it with
additional bursts of skronk. However, on the October 7th 2001 version used for the final part of
the album version, he is actually strumming the D note at the 2nd fret of the low C string,
only on the record it sounds like a C#. The live version enters at around 8:58 and he picks the D
note until just past the 10-minute mark.
Then as the song is almost over, he starts doubling Kim's notes just slightly offbeat from her:
D---11-----7-----
C---------------- play clean, distorted, shake w/ bar, etc til end
G----------------
D----------------
G----------------
C----------------
For the live version used on the album, the second note was an A# instead of an A (but it's slowed
to C and A).
Lee:
A-------
G---5---
G---5---
D---5--- hold then dissolve into extreme noise
G---5---
G---5---
After the first phase of noise calms down and Thurston begins his clean plinky riff, Lee just does
random picking w/ delay, slowly increasing with intensity. On the record it sounds like he's sticking
around the 12th fret, occasionally adding the 15th fret on the A string. For live versions he moved
up and down from 7 to 9 to 12 to 15, etc.
When Thurston's clean riff starts to get hectic, Lee starts this arpeggiated chord riff:
A-----------------------------------------------
G------------------------------0----------------
G---------0----------0-------0--------------0--- repeat w/ slight variation
D-------7----------4--------(10)---------12-----
G-----5----------2---------8----------10--------
G---5----------2---------7----------9-----------
On the record this starts around 6:06 and stops at 6:50. During live versions he would sometimes
strum the full chords rather than arpeggiating. He would stop this riff when Kim began her 2-note outro.
When Kim starts her outro, Lee would play chords like these with heavy distortion and delay,
running them slowly down the neck while strumming quickly.
A---------------------
G---9-\--------17-\---
G---8-\--------16-\---
D---7-\--------15-\---
G---------------------
G---------------------
At the very end he'd settle into a chord like:
A---12---
G---10--- pick individual notes softly w/ delay
G----9---
D--------
G--------
G--------
Kim:
Kim doesn't hit a proper C, she just strikes open strings with heavy fuzz.
When the first drop happens, she just stays with the boiling noise. Sometimes she'd rub her
fretboard against the mic stand while working her various pedals.
When Thurston cuts the noise and starts playing his plinky riff, she'd turn off the distortion
and just start strumming clean open strings. This part isn't really audible on the album version,
but is clear on live versions. She didn't seem to follow a specific direction, but on the PBS
version she switches to this chord at one point:
B---0--- --------
B---0--- ---13---
A---0--- play for a while then switch to: ---12---
D---5--- ----0---
A---5--- ----0---
D---5--- ----0---
She frets the bottom 3 strings with her thumb and leaves the top three open, strumming various chords
at the 5th, 3rd, and 7th fret then back to the open string chord pictured above...building...
Eventually she moves up to her final shape, strumming away at it before slowing to the outro riff,
where she picks out each note, repeating until the very end:
B---14------------
B-----------------
A----------12-----
D-----------------
A-----------------
D-----------------
On the live version used for the album, she was playing these notes instead:
B---14------------
B-----------------
A----------13-----
D-----------------
A-----------------
D-----------------
However, they slowed this section down on the record, which means it sounds a half step lower.
Jim starts the section on C like everyone else:
G-------
D-------
A---3---
E-------
When the free noise starts, he would typically take off his bass and start playing with his effects,
sometimes holding a contact mic up to his amp and processing that feedback. During initial live versions,
including the one captured at the tail end of the album version, he was playing guitar in GGDEGB.
If I were to try to clarify the album version, I'd break it down as follows:
3:00 everyone drones C note, Steve plays cymbals
3:22 free noise starts, Steve on snare, D drone fades in around 3:45 (Kim?)
4:38 Lee picking w/ delay, T clean figure starts @ 4:55, snare winds down at 5:09, D drone fades by 5:30
6:06 Lee arpeggiated riff enters til 6:50, T figure continues, tom beat enters, noise wall builds
7:05 T stops clean riff, starts strumming w/ C drone, toms build giving way to heavy beat @ 7:27
8:38 beat stops, all guitars still building wall of noise
8:58 segue to live version, Thurston is picking low D, Kim is playing 2-note figure til end,
Lee and Jim playing spatters of notes w/ delay, Steve doing light hat/snare/rim accents
10:07 T stops droning D, eventually starts doubling Kim, Jim playing light wah notes similar to K/T,
Lee running chords down the neck with heavy delay
text + tab by Chris Lawrence
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