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.
This would prove to be Fintella’s biggest hit, going all the way to #1. She does claim she wrote it, although the record label disagree and refused to pay her.
It ended up taking her 28 years to get paid for the song that defined her career.
The chord boxes you see below 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.
Let’s take a look at all the chords and lyrics for Rescue Me so you can play along with me in the video guitar lesson above.
Rescue Me chords and lyrics
||: A | D :|| D C#m Bm A | E |
| 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.
||: 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?
| 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.
||: 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.
||: A | D :|| D C#m Bm A | E |
| 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.
||: 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.
||: 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.
||: 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.
||: A | D :||
Rescue me, rescue me.
Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.
Rescue Me chord progression
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 | G | Em :||
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 :|| D C#m Bm A | E |
Course preview (Guitar Lesson – Step 2)
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.
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 8 – Guitar Lessons.
Rescue Me – Lyrics + Live performance
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
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 Songs
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.
Go to Intermediate Electric Songs.
The Professional Guitarist Song Book
As a guitarist, a repertoire is the greatest asset that you can acquire.
Learn these songs and you can progress from being a bedroom player to working with acoustic duos, Jazz trios, Indie/Rock/Party bands as well as large Soul/Motown ensembles.
Go to Song Book.
Copyright + Comments
Studying great songs is the best way for a musician to develop, we believe displaying chords and lyrics falls under “fair use in education”.
If you are the copyright holder and do not wish to be represented in this way, or want to comment on anything in these lessons, do reach out.
Go to Contact.
