DaveC

This is the basic chord structure for THTBA...I spent the last 30 mins fleshing it out. One more thing...I don't think the Em7 is right. I do know however that the rest is correct. If someone could help me figure out what the heck that chord is, it'd be mucho appreciated.

One thing I noticed...Electrical Storm and The Hands That Built America are both based off of an F#m chord...odd, no?

This is also being sent in to U2Log and the U2 Guitar Archive.



The Hands That Built America
U2 - The Best Of 1990-2000
Tabbed by: Dave Curran (u2_13@hotmail.com)

Chord changes are pretty easy to figure out...just listen to the song. You might wanna toss

in some Dsus2's (xx0230) in the Chorus and second verse too...just play around with it until it feels right to you.

Intro (Piano part):
e|--0-----------0--------------------------------------------------|
B|-------------------3---------------------------------------------|
G|--------2-----------------------4-----2-----0----0h2-------------| (x2)
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|

F#m E D
Oh my love, it's a long way we've come.
F#m E D
From the freckled hills, to the steel and glass canyons.
Am G D
From the stony fields, to hanging steel from the sky.
Am G D
From digging in our pockets, for a reason not to say goodbye.

F#m E D
These are the hands, that built America.
F#m E D
Ahhhh America.

Last saw your face, in a water colour sky.
As sea birds argue, a long goodbye.
I took your kiss, on the spray of the new land star.
You gotta live with your dreams, don't make them so hard, ohh ohh.

And these are the hands, that built America.
Ahhhh America.
Em7 Em F
Of all of the promises, is this one we could keep?
Em7 Em F
Of all of the dreams, is this one still out of reach.

F
Halle, Ole

(Repeat Em7, Em, F thing)

F#m E D
It's early fall, there's a cloud on the New York sky line.
F#m E D
Innocence, dragged across a yellow line.
F#m E D
These are the hands that built America.
F#m E D
These are the hands that built America.
F#m E D
Ahhhh America.
F#m E D
Ahhhh America.

End with Am.

Chords
F#m E D Am G Em7 Em F
e|--2----0----2----0----3----0----0----1--|
B|--2----0----3----1----3----3----0----1--|
G|--2----1----2----2----0----0----0----2--|
D|--4----2----0----2----0----2----2----3--|
A|--4----2---------0----2----2----2----3--|
E|--2----0--------------3----0----0----1--|

I'll try to come up with the other layered fillers later. Happy playing!

Cheers, Dave

DaveC

I had, on the actual tab, exactly where the chord changes go. It didn't work so well here because it's in Courier New font here. It was in just plain old Courier on my tab. Just listen to the Mp3 and you'll get the changes down...not too difficult.

IWasBored

nice. now if i could only write out the piano part...it's really easy...i can play it and really really suck at the piano...

rockonedge

You can play that Iwasbored??? That's so cool!! I doubt you suck at it! I would love to be able to play that........if you *were*, by chance, if you *wanted* to, able to write it out, i know i would use it! I already know how to play october...you could learn to play that one too, its not too bad. I found it on a great site and i can't remember the address now but i'll put it up once i get home!

Sorry, i just love playing piano. It gets me hyper. Almost as much as Edge!

IWasBored

i tried to NOT ramble too much...i think i'm just a natural rambler...

i love playing the piano, almost as much as i love playing my guitar, but i get along better with my guitar. i'm thoroughly convinced i suck at both. i'm stoked that people have tried to tell me that i don't suck, but there have been just too many mess ups either with an audience (bad bad experience during a chorus final exam trying to do "one"...i don't know if i posted about it before, it was actually more related to me forgetting the words though), or just playing at home. so yeah i'm not good at it, guitar or piano, but it's more fun than anything else in the world!

i took piano lessons when i was about nine or something, and i hated it. i never really learned how to read music properly, my teacher gave me a sheet of paper and said "memorize what notes are what"...i don't remember WHAT i did when i played trumpet in school band in 5th grade...i guess i could read the treble clef for a short period of time. i never really memorized which notes were which on the piano, i justknew that middle c was under the "y" in the word yamaha, and counted from there...it all probably comes down to some wierd issues i have with the alphabet...

anyway, i would LOVE to be able to write down the piano part for "hands"...i tried to bribe my sister to do it for me over vacation, but she wanted nothing to do with it.

my sister: "eew that thing you've been playing over and over is a u2 song?"
me: yeah! *runs and loads the dvd*
sister: no way in hell am i helping you remember THAT!

oh well, the only things i forget are things that i learned from sheet music, not figured out from the recording...

i can play october too...i had a blast learning that! i've given up trying to learn how to read music. accepting that i can't do it, end of story. i'd be interested in the site that you learned how to play october from. i wonder how close it is to what i figured it was...i'll just get someone to write the notes down for me!

i also had a blast trying to play new year's day...i set the keyboard up on the kitchen table and brought my guitar out and was NEARLY getting the right notes out of both, and my mom came in the room and wanted to know what on earth i was doing...what do you mean "what am i doing?"? what did it look like i was doing?

i'm a certifiable dork. i should have a certificate or a special card or something...

rockonedge

Wow! That's so neat......your sister doesn't know what she's missing does she? Oh, here's the website that i got the music from, its http://w3m.fateback.com/

The person who runs it transcribes it all herself, and i think she does a good job! Theres a good selection of songs too. I learned how to play the Scientist by Coldplay from here thanks to it. Hope you enjoy!

IWasBored

awesome!! thanks!

i miss my keyboard already, and the site hasn't loaded yet!!

gvox

Thanks for taking the time to post that up Dave!

At any rate, at risk of being acccused of trashing U2 (cause anyone who knows me knows I aint), I am officially declaring U2 to be the absolutely most easy band to learn guitar from..

F#m E D Am G A....god I think every single U2 song is written from these chords, with a C or Bm thrown in every so often...

This song uses all of the same chords as Electrical Storm, save one....just a slightly different order..

I love it!

__________________
...one..not the same..but one all the same..

Strato Edge

It actually : Am, G, D for the Intro