Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash - Joe Bean guitar tab

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 23:55:52 -0500

From: Chris Howell

Subject: c/cash_johnny/joe_bean.crd

Joe Bean

B. Freeman, L. Pober

Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison, 1999

Johnny Cash performed this song at his famous 1968 concert

in Folsom Prison. It wasn't included on the original

release of the concert, along with "Busted" and "The Legend

of John Henry's Hammer." Columbia just released a new CD,

At Fulsom Prison (CK 65955), of the full concert. They

should do the same for his later concert at San Quentin.

Anyway, "Busted" and "John Henry" sound pretty identical to

the master versions on his 1963 album Blood, Sweat, and

Tears, but I haven't heard this song anywhere before. It's

track 13 on the new CD.

He plays "Joe Bean" on a solo acoustic guitar, after

"Flushed From The Bathroom of Your Heart." The quote below

is his segway into "Joe Bean," which he said over the

crowd's applause.

============================================================

"Last time, last time we were here at Folsom Prison they

were hanging Joe Bean. Is Joe still here? Joe Bean?

Hang the son of a bitch anyway, right?"

Introduction (spoken):

Well, they're hanging Joe Bean this morning for killing a

man in Arkansas. Funny thing about it is Joe Bean has

never been to Arkansas, and on top of that Joe Bean never

heard of the man. In fact, today is Joe Bean's twentieth

birthday.

Verse 1:

G

See ...

D

... stand

G C

Just twenty ......

G D G

You die .......

Verse 2:as verse 1, then

C G

Yes, they're hanging .......

G D G

That Joe Bean ......

Verse 3:

Verse 4:

End:

(tacet)

"Happy birthday, Joe Bean"

===========================================================

This song is all strumming. Over the spoken introduction

he strums a G chord once before speaking, and then once for

every other beat in a verse. The second-to-last strum (on

"today") is arpeggiated, and the last (after "twentieth

birthday") is done one string at a time. He's not keeping

time, but I guess if the last two chords were tabbed it

would look like this:

e|-------------------|

B|-----3-----------3-|

G|----0----------0---|

D|---0---------0-----|

A|--2--------2-------|

E|-3-------3---------|

The main body of the song is standard Johnny Cash

strumming. He plays some bass notes independent of the

chords sometimes, but there's no real picking pattern.

The first verse only consists of four lines. The rest are

all six lines long.

In the fourth verse, on "It's not up to me, but this much,

Joe Bean, I'll do," he interrupts the rhythm of his

strumming. He strums G on "not" and mutes the strings.

He plays arpeggiated chords on "me" (C chord), "much"

(G chord), "Bean" (D chord), and "do" (G chord).

The last line, "Happy birthday, Joe Bean" is sung without

the guitar, to the tune of the first line of the happy

birthday song.

Chord formations:

There is a capo on the third fret, and he mutes the high E

string through the whole song.

G C D

e|-------|

B|-3-1-3-|

G|-0-0-2-|

D|-0-2-0-|

A|-2-3-0-|

E|-3-----|

Tabbed by Chris Howell

Comments and corrections can be mailed to

cwhowell@student.umass.edu

Posted December, 1999

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