HELMET - "ironhead" Tablature
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Date: 11 Jul 1993 23:40:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: NATHAN VIJAY PATWARDHAN <V119P7JC@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu>
Subject: h/helmet/ironhead.crd
IRONHEAD by Helmet
This song is played in an odd 4/4 time signature. If you do not fol-
low the timing properly, you are apt to end up playing something with a swing
time.
Guitar ace Page Hamilton, formerly of Band of Susans, and the Branca
Symphony Orchestra, put together Helmet about three years ago, released an EP
and an independant label release (which sold only 7,000 copies), and then got
an unheard of $1million recording contract with Interscope/Atlantic records,
from where they released their /Meantime/ album.
In the song 'Ironhead,' Page Hamilton uses the dropped-D tuning, fam-
iliar to those of you who are into the Seattlites. He uses heavy distortion.
This is not a typical metal song with a lot of crunching and heavy muting.
Page uses a muting that creates various artificial harmonics while he mutes the
strings just above the back pick-up...
'ironhead'
G# A G# D G# A G# D G# A G# D F D F F G E F E F
-----------------------|-----------|-------------------|
-----------------------|-----------|-------------------|
-----------------------|-----------|-------------------|
-----------------------|-----------|-------------------|
---6--7-6--0-6--7-6--0-|6--7-6--0--|-3-0-3-3H5-2/3-2/3-|
---6--7-6--0-6--7-6--0-|6--7-6--0--|-3-0-3-3H5-2/3-2/3-|
P.M.....A.H........
|-Riff A------------|
Play Riff A about 6X, but at the end of six times, play...
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|-3-0-3-3H5-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-4-|
|-3-0-3-3H5-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-4-|
Then back to Riff A and the verse:
F D F FhG E/F E/F
Safe to Kill...
Then onto Riff B:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------|---------------------------|-------------------
-------------------------------|---------------------------|-------------------
-------------------------------|---------------------------|-------------------
-------------------------------|---------------------------|-------------------
--0-2p0-2p0---2-3-4---0--x-x---|-2p0---6--7--6--0--2p0--2p0|--6h7--6--0--------
back to Riff A and onto Verse 3...
At the end of the last verse, play:
Riff B, then:
this tab is for the low-D and the A only
|--6-7-6-0--|--6-7-6-0--|--6-7-6-0--|-7-7-7-7-|-7-7-7-7|-7-7-7-7|-5-5-|
|--6-7-6-0--|--6-7-6-0--|--6-7-6-0--|-7-7-7-7-|-7-7-7-7|-7-7-7-7|-5-5-|
and this for the low-d and the A only...
|-00000000-|-77777777-|-66666666-|-33333333| (3x)
|-00000000-|-77777777-|-66666666-|-33333333|
and back to riff A and and Riff B to close.
This is a fairly close transcription. I've heard several performances of this
song. Its seems that they are somewhat different each time, so whatever you do
will probably almost correct as long as you play the right notes and stick with
the quirky tempo.
Nate
v119p7jc@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
This musical interpretation has been removed due to a legal threat from Moses & Singer LLP,
representing the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) and
The Music Publisher's Association of the United States (MPA).
Unfortunately, these threats are fueled by greed and being masked by a "copyright infringement." They claim tab sites are
"hurting the songwriters," but it's a known fact that the publishing companies garner most of the
revenue. Instead, they would prefer you to purchase the
official HELMET tablature
which is an option we've always given our users. And due to the highly error-prone nature of tabs on the internet, many choose to go this route.
These companies also do not realize that tablature sites help to promote their artists.
For more information on this onslaught, you can read the
NY Times Article.
We hope one of the larger tablature sites will have the money to fight this. Until then, we urge you all to keep tabbing songs and sharing them in any way you can.
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