Rescue Me | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: A | D :|| D C#m Bm A | E |
Verse 1
| A | D |
Rescue me, take me in your arms.
| G | Em |
Rescue me, I want your tender charm,
| A | D |
’cause I’m a lonely and I’m blue,
| G | Em |
I need you and your love too, come on and rescue me.
Chorus 1
||: A | D :||
Come on baby and rescue me.
Come on baby and rescue me.
’Cause I need you, by my side,
| D C#m Bm A | E |
can’t you see that I’m lonely?
Verse 2
| A | D |
Rescue me, come on and take my heart,
| G | Em |
take your love and conquer every part,
| A | D |
’cause I’m a lonely and I’m blue,
| G | Em |
I need you and your love too.
Chorus 2
||: A | D :||
Come on and rescue me,
come on baby and rescue me.
Come on baby and rescue me,
’cause I need you, by my side,
| D C#m Bm A | E |
Can’t you see that I’m lonely?
Instrumental
||: A | D :|| D C#m Bm A | E |
Verse 3
| A | D |
Rescue me, oh take me in your arms.
| G | Em |
Rescue me, I want your tender charm,
| A | D |
’cause I’m lonely and I’m blue,
| G | Em |
I need you and your love too.
Chorus 3
||: A | D :||
Come on and rescue me, come on baby.
Take me baby (take me baby).
Hold me baby (hold me baby).
Love me baby (love me baby).
Can’t you see that I need you baby,
| D C#m Bm A | E |
can’t you see that I’m lonely.
Chorus 4
||: A | D :||
Rescue me, come on and take my hand,
c’mon baby and be my man,
’cause I love you, ’cause I want you,
| D C#m Bm A | E |
can’t you see that I’m lonely.
Outro
||: A | D :||
Mmm-hmm (mmm-hmm),
mmm-hmm (mmm-hmm).
Take me baby (take me baby).
Love me baby (love me baby).
Need me baby (need me baby).
Mmm-hmm (mmm-hmm), mmm-hmm,
| D C#m Bm A | E |
Can’t you see that I’m lonely.
End
||: A | D :||
Rescue me, rescue me.
Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.
Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.
| D C#m Bm A | E | A |
Can’t you see that I’m lonely.
You can learn how to play Rescue Me by Fontella Bass!
Rescue Me is a single by Fontella Bass. Released on the traditional blues label Chess in 1965, it was a clear attempt from the record label to cross over from blues to “white radio” and rival what Berry Gordy was doing.
This would prove to be Fontella’s biggest hit, going all the way to #1. She does claim she wrote it, although the record label disagreed and refused to pay her.
The chords for Rescue Me are great as an introduction to playing improvised rhythm guitar parts all over the neck. By being able to move freely, you can adjust your part to what the band is doing.
Below, you get the first lesson from the course, working on how to play Rescue Me’s chorus.
Rescue Me’s chorus chords
The chorus of Rescue Me mainly moves between the two chords A and D. To develop a good guitar part for it, you must first ensure you can play these two chords anywhere on the neck.
The best way to achieve this is to use the so-called CAGED system. By connecting the chord shapes to an actual song, we can create musical exercises.
In example 1, the first chord shape can be seen as either an open A or a G-shaped A. When playing a fraction of a chord like this, the two shapes overlap.
The D chord could be seen as either an open D or a C-shaped D. Again, the two shapes overlap.
When playing a part in a song it’s important to keep the number of strings to a minimum. Experiment with playing only two strings from the chord shapes, rather than three as the TAB show in these examples.
In example 2, the shapes are more clear. The A chord is a G shape, and the D chord is definitely a C shape.
As you can see in the first two exercises, the chords are played on the beat using a staccato approach. Cut the chord off early so it doesn’t ring into the next strum. Do this by letting go of the strings on the fretboard, effectively muting with your fretting hand.
The strumming hands’ pendulum movement should be at 16th note pace and must never be interrupted. This way, adding the extra 16th note is easy.
Ensure all rhythms are played ‘snappy’. The length of the rest after the chord is as important for the groove as the placement of the actual rhythm.
In example 3, we play the E-shaped A, followed by the A-shaped D chord. This is possibly what you’ll end up playing the most when you play the full song.
In example 4, the shapes used are, just like in the first example, debatable. The A chord is using a D-shape, or is it the top part of a C-shape? The answer is, they overlap. The D chord is a G-shape.
Finally, in example 5 we play a C-shaped A chord and an E-shaped D chord. This final example uses great chord shapes for this song. By moving up the neck and playing higher notes, we increase the intensity.
One idea could be to play these shapes toward the end of the song.
In the video above, I play through all these examples before I start moving freely around the fretboard, adding slides and extra rhythms. You can do this too if you are able to play in all five positions.
Rescue Me’s 8 guitar lessons in the course
In this first series of lessons for the intermediate electric course, we learn how to play Rescue Me by Fontella Bass, at the same time as we learn the CAGED system.
The way we do this is by practicing along with the band as we step-by-step work our way to playing the complete song.
In total, there are 8 step-by-step lessons for Rescue Me available. Here are links to each lesson in the course (members only):
- Step 1 – Bars & Beats
- Step 2 – Chorus
- Step 3 – Verse
- Step 4 – Turnaround
- Step 5 – Major pentatonic
- Step 6 – Verse, chorus & turnaround
- Step 7 – The complete song with TAB
- Step 8 – Live band backing track
Rescue Me chords | Related pages
Five similar tunes
- Be My Baby chords
- Dancing In The Street chords
- Heat Wave chords
- Nowhere To Run chords
- You Can’t Hurry Love chords
Fontella Bass
Fontella Bass spent a large amount of her life chasing a royalty check she never received for her million-selling smash hit Rescue Me.
It took her 28 years until she got paid, but it wasn’t in royalties for writing the song.
Fontella Bass on the web
Motown & Soul
Learn all these Motown/Soul songs and you will have gained yourself a repertoire so you can jam or even join a working band.
Study these songs in-depth and you will map out the fretboard, master the CAGED system, and learn how to design a rhythm guitar part that works in a band.
