Open Tunings only for the Talentless?

[boombox]

I was having a conversation with my brother yesterday on matters musical and mentioned I was playing around with a new C tuning I nicked from Martin Simpson's playing. "But why?" he replied, "open tunings are only for talentless people who can't play in standard." He than went on to expound that people who use such tunings are just perpetuating old-fashioned music and that as a result, you'd never hear them on Radio 1 on a Sunday afternoon (that's when the Chart show is on, my Transatlantic friends!). I did try to explain that they probably wouldn't want to be, that chart success is not a barometer of either talent or relevance, but he would not be moved.

So, in order to re-educate him, or at least so that I can feel that I've tried to remove his blinkers, I thought about putting together a disc or two of very well-known or hit songs that were not played in standard eg, Zep's 'Kashmir' & 'Black Mountain Side', Coldplay's 'Yellow', Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun', the Stones' 'Start Me Up' & 'Brown Sugar', Joni's 'Big Yellow taxi' etc. I know he's a big fan of Paul Simon, who, I didn't have the heart to tell him, sometimes used open tunings, though I can't remember which songs and which tunings. Any ideas for Mr Simon and indeed as many other well-known uber-popular songs as you can muster? (NB Avoid blues-based classics eg the Allmans as I know he doesn't have a clue about that type of stuff.)

I'm posting this too to the Collings board, which seems dominated by standard-tuned bluegrassers, so it should be interesting to see what reaction it gets there too.

TIA

[JB]

I wish I was as 'talentless' as all those open tuning pickers !

[the greypicker]

An interesting question, BB!

I have been looking, but come up with very little apart from Led Zep/Jimmy Page whcih you already have:

But some suggestions are:

Keith Richards: Hony Tonk Woman, Brown Sugar etc GDBDG (no 6th string on his guitar)

Clapton: Running on Faith - DGDGBD

Crosby, Stills and Nash: Carry On - EBEEBE

Ry Cooder - Theme from Paris Texas - DADF#AD - lots of other stuff

Don Everley - Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Suzie etc - DGDGBD

All the above regularly use different tunings.

+James Taylor - drop D king!

I hope these are useful!

John

[boombox]

An interesting question, BB!

Clapton: Running on Faith - DGDGBD - nice one: hadn't thought of that one and while it's not highly known amongst your Radio 1 listeners, it's still EC
Crosby, Stills and Nash: Carry On - EBEEBE - bet he woudln't know anything by CSN - even Woodstock, Teach Your Children or Our House!
Ry Cooder - Theme from Paris Texas - DADF#AD - lots of other stuff - he MIGHT know the name...
Don Everley - Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Suzie etc - DGDGBD - well, I would never have guessed that - very interesting fact to know from my own point of view, as I've always had a soft spot for the Everly Bros.
All the above regularly use different tunings.

+James Taylor - drop D king! - but You've Got a Friend is standard, isn't it?
I hope these are useful! -YES! Thanks, John
John

And yes JB, it's quite funny to think of Hedges, Jansch, Thompson, Bensusan etc as 'talentless'!!

[Rick Jones]

I had a similar conversation with a somewhat snobby guitarist here in Jersey about a year ago. Something along the lines of 'how good would you be without your tunings?'.

Interestingly, the songs I'd just played were in standard, and he hadn't twigged because I rarely 'stay still' on any one chord long enough. I'm a huge fan of Aussie guitarist Jeff Lang, and his tunings are so wildly different for each song, I often wonder if it's like playing a different instrument for him.

I think the 'lazy guitarist' thing comes from people who tune to an open barre chord and use one finger... Dolly Parton used to do it due to her nails!! Also, a guitar all tuned to root notes and fifths makes for an easy way to sound like you know what you're doing... and it's great fun too!!