https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/adam-raised-a-cain-bruce-springsteen/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:48:43 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/adam-raised-a-cain-bruce-springsteen/#post-321586 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:06 +0000 Easy Songs SteveS https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/adam-raised-a-cain-bruce-springsteen/#post-321586 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/adam-raised-a-cain-bruce-springsteen/#post-35071 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:42:59 +0000
Quite an obscure song from The Boss. I think it led off the 'Darkness album and he was not in a particularly good mood at the time. As always, a youtube link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOj5tNzKQdk This one has a particular challenge to it and would probably not be an ideal candidate for the ESD. However, the way I do it ends up being simple enough.

The band, as with most of their songs, seem to make the guitar an accent instrument rather than the "main" instrument. For this single guitar arrangement, I used the main chords and follow the baseline a lot more than I do the recorded guitar version. When you hear the baseline in the opening, that's what I'm strumming my chords to. However, it's not a typical folk style strum. More like a percussive attack, so to speak.

The main opening riff and the verses are pretty much the same. I normally don't get into strumming patterns when I post songs for this project, but I think I will after I post the chords. Normally I just suggest to go by what you see, hear and feel. If your doing accoustic, fine and dandy. If not and are using an electric, do turn on some gain. Not a ton. This isn't a heavy-metal song. He's just pissedoff, that's all.
Adam Raised A Cain Bruce Springsteen Intro In the summer that I was baptized, My father held me to his side, As they put me to the water, He said how on that day I cried. We were prisoners of love, a love in chains, He was standin' in the door, I was standin' in the rain, with the same hot blood burning in our veins, Adam raised a Cain. Adam raised a Cain. Adam raised a Cain. Adam raised a Cain. All of the old faces, Ask you why you're back, They fit you with position, And the keys to your daddy's Cadillac, In the darkness of your room, Your mother calls you by your true name, You remember the faces, the places, the names, You know it's never over, it's relentless as the rain, In the Bible Cain slew Abel And East of Eden he was cast, You're born into this life paying, for the sins of somebody else's past, Daddy worked his whole life, for nothing but the pain, Now he walks these empty rooms, looking for something to blame, You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames, Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart of a dream, OK, for the main riff, it's Em-Am. That would be two hard downstrokes on the Em followed by one hard downstroke of Am which you let ring out a little. Easy enough. Do that 3 times. The fourth time is backwards. A couple of strokes of Am followed by the Em, which you let ring out a little.

What I actually do for the verses is slightly different as I add a few lighter strokes on the Am after the initial heavy handed downstroke. I let the hard downstroke ring out for, I dunno, maybe a 1/4 beat, and then three gentler downstrokes of the Am.]]> Easy Songs rparker https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/adam-raised-a-cain-bruce-springsteen/#post-35071