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 with Motown.
Since this is the first song in the course, we start with making sure you can play all Rescue Me’s chords, as CAGED chords, all over the neck.
When you can play all the chords in all shapes, the next step is to decorate them with some slides and licks.
When sliding into a chord, you create tension. How fast you slide in and how many strings you use from what shape, is best discovered by improvising when playing over a section of the song. It has to be a real song in order to provide context.
Similarly, when adding more rhythms and pentatonic licks, you create excitement. This too must be practiced within the context of a song, not in isolation, as a general chord exercise.
Using this approach, we can map out the fretboard and effectively learn how to play guitar, using a song. This really is what spytunes is all about and Rescue Me is a perfect example of how this can be done.
Rescue Me chords and lyrics
The chord boxes you see above don’t tell the whole story. Study the video and you’ll see how I play many more shapes than these. The secret to great rhythm playing is to know all your CAGED chord shapes so you can freely move around the neck.
By moving freely, you can adjust your part to what the band is doing as well as create movement in your rhythm part.
The intro starts with a bass line, when we join in, we do so playing between A and D, just like the chorus. This is followed by a series of chords that sets us up for a verse, and later on, to repeat choruses.
||: A | D :|| D C#m Bm A | E |
The verse chord progression of Rescue Me may appear simple at first glance, but there is actually a very clever key change in there. We start in A with chords I and IV, then go to the key of G and play I – VI.
| 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.
The chorus repeats in the same way as the intro did. Start with I – V, then play the descending chord progression of IV – III – II – V.
| A | D |
Come on baby and rescue me.
| A | D |
Come on baby and rescue me.
| A | D |
’Cause I need you, by my side,
| D C#m Bm A | E |
can’t you see that I’m lonely?
Course preview (Guitar Lesson – Step 2)
In the video above, starting at 2:52, you find a preview of Rescue Me’s guitar lesson, it’s the beginning of step 2 of the course.
In this step, we work on how to play the chorus all over the neck using the CAGED system. In order to improvise a rhythm guitar part, you must be able to play all chords, all over the fretboard like this.
In general, it is a much better idea to learn how to do this in the context of a song, rather than as an isolated exercise.
There are five TAB examples that come with this step, below you find the first three examples so you can try this already now. In the course, you get a loop of the band playing the chorus to practice along to.
Rescue Me – Guitar Lessons
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.
Practice along with the band as we step by step work our way to playing the complete song.
Go to Rescue Me guitar lessons.
Rescue Me – Lyrics
Rescue me, take me in your arms.
Rescue me, I want your tender charm,
’cause I’m a lonely and I’m blue,
I need you and your love too.
Go to Rescue Me lyrics.
Fontella Bass – Biography
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.
Go to Fontella Bass biography.
Intermediate Electric – 13 Songs
You can learn how to play these 13 intermediate electric songs!
Be My Baby, Can I Get A Witness, Get Ready, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Jimmy Mack, Master Blaster (Jammin’), Money (That’s What I Want), My Guy, Rescue Me, Respect, Son Of A Preacher Man, Soul Man, and You Can’t Hurry Love.
Go to Intermediate Electric Songs.
