Handbags and Gladrags - Rod Stewart / Stereophonics

Greetings all.

Today's offering is the Rod Stewart song "Handbags and Gladrags" that the Stereophonics so successfully covered a few years ago. Its also the theme tune to the hit comedy series here in the UK "The Office".

Key and Capo!The original is in the key of Bb which isn't the most guitar freindly of keys, so this version uses a capo at the first fret and is played in A.

Basic structure
Song is in 4/4 time so its four beats to a bar. The intro and the first two lines of the song (from "ever see a blind man" down to "make herself a bride") consist of changeing chords every two beats, followed by two lines where you hold the chord for four beats each, then returning to the changeing chords ever two beats.

ChordsA x02220
A/G 302220
D xx0232
D/F# 200232
E9sus4 00432
F#m 244222
E7 020100
B x24442 (see notes on this!)

Notes on the B chord
One thing i found with this song. Its GREAT practice for learning that pesky barred B chord. The secret is to play the A chord with suitable fingering to make the change simple, cramming your pinky, ring and middle fingers into the second fret like this -

High E - open
B string - pinky
G string - ring
D string middle
A string open
E string don't play

then, slide this shape up two frets and at the same time lay your index finger on the second fret as your barre. It helps if you concentrate on getting the index finger right up to the fret wire, and roll your finger slightly over on its side. If you can just touch the low E with the tip of your index finger to mute it, so much the better. Believe me, I am useless at barres generally, but even I can hit this cleanly 8 times out of ten now!
Give it a try.

Strum pattern / tempoBecause the song is a leisurely tempo (approx 64 beats per minute on your metronome) all sorts of things are possible here, from a straight D D dud on each chord (so for the first line you would play A (D D dud) A/G (D D dud). The timing for this stroke is like this -
D one
D and
d two
u +
d and

However a much more effective pattern (that brings out the bass notes far better) is to use the bass as your first beat like this

Bass Down dud

So a tab for the intro would look like this -
A A/G D/F# E9sus4
|----0--0-0-0-----0--0-0-0-|----2--2-2-2-----2--2-2-2-|
|----2--2-2-2-----2--2-2-2-|----3--3-3-3-----3--3-3-3-|
|----2--2-2-2-----2--2-2-2-|----2--2-2-2-----4--4-4-4-|
|----2--2-2-2-----2--2-2-2-|----0--0-0-0-----0--0-0-0-|
|-0---------------0--0-0-0-|----0--0-0-0-----0--0-0-0-|
|--------------3-----------|-2------------0-----------|
D D D U D D D D U D D D D U D D D D U D

If you look at the song itself, this intro is very close to the first two lines of each verse, so us it as a model for those lines. As far as the third and fourth line is concerned, because you are holding the chords for four beats and not two, you have a lot of "space" to fill with strumming so play around with patterns. I have tried the following successfully:

Bass D Dud uud dudu

so a tab for the third and fourth lines would be something like this -
F#m E
|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|----0--0-0-0-0--0-0--0-0-0-0-|
|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|----0--0-0-0-0--0-1--0-0-0-0-|
|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|----1--1-1-1-1--1-1--1-1-1-1-|
|----4--4-4-4-4--4-4--4-4-4-4-|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|
|----4--4-4-4-4--4-4--4-4-4-4-|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|
|-2----------------2----------|-0----------------0----------|
D D D U D U U D D U D U D D D U D U U D D U D U

A B
|----0--0-0-0-0--0-0--0-0-0-0-|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|
|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|----4--4-4-4-4--4-4--4-4-4-4-|
|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|----4--4-4-4-4--4-4--4-4-4-4-|
|----2--2-2-2-2--2-2--2-2-2-2-|----4--4-4-4-4--4-4--4-4-4-4-|
|-0----------------0----------|-2----------------2----------|
|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
D D D U D U U D D U D U D D D U D U U D D U D U


however, like I say you have plenty of room to experiment. You could build a moving bass line in here, anything is possible.

Anyway that's the basic structure, just watch out for a couple of different chords as you go along. I hope you enjoy this classic song!

here's the whole thing:
Handbags and gladrags. Rod Stewart / Stereophonics
Capo 1st fret. Original key Bb. 4/4 time, 64 bmp

as always, feedback and comments appreciated.

all the best

Matt