[vlmagee]

Ken, the chords on Wayne's site are almost always exactly what was in the original songbook (where there was a songbook, of course). In many cases the songbook is not 100% faithful to Gord's exact chords, and that is where the differences creep in, where Gord is playing a chord varient which the sheetmusic writer didn't know (usually someone else, not the songwriter, writes the music notation for these songbooks). For the 3 songbooks and one additional song where there are photocopies of Gord's original leadsheets, I would say that you can rely on the songbook, but beyond that you have to trust your ears. BHOE was not one of the precious three that included leadsheets (the one additional song is CRT).

As Cathy says, Gord - at least today - uses only standard tuning and dropped D. Whether he ever tuned to something else when he played live, I can't say, but from those three songbooks (SSOL, DQ and ODR), I'd guess that at least by the early 1970s he wasn't using any other tunings.

He did move the capo pretty freely in the early days, with it on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd fret on various songs. Today, he moves it only once, at the end of the show, when he plays either ODR or COTS (2nd to 3rd fret). For dropped D, 3rd fret, on the 12 string, he has used a second guitar for many years. He has commented frequently that he doesn't like to move the capo, because it can put the guitar out of tune (and he doesn't like to retune on stage because of the time it takes plus he is very fussy), and he would NEVER move it more than once.

Anyhow, he definitely doesn't play Bitter Green with an alternate tuning today, and probably didn't originally. So if you want to play it like he does, you should start again with what is posted at Wayne's site or in the BHOE songbook if you have it (if not, somebody here can probably help you out). The songbook may have a notation about capo placement as well.

[ April 06, 2007, 14:07: Message edited by: vlmagee ]