One of the, like, 4 TR songs recognized by the general public. Some people dismiss it as "la-la" music, but I love it because it's true to real emotions. It has a pretty melody, and I think of the "la-la" section as the narrator imagining his loved one dancing out of his life forever. This is another song that's chock full of "Todd chords" (see my tab of Compassion for an explanation) and has a clever and catchy rhythmic twist, detailed below. This is the version from the Hermit album. On With A Twist, Todd has transposed the song to the key of E, re-harmonized it slightly, and written a new saxophone solo section to replace the La-la part. I plan to write that arrangement out soon. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Can We Still Be Friends by Todd Rundgren (*1) D/C G/C D/C G/C We can't play this game anymore, but Em7 D/E Em7 Can we still be friends D/C G/C D/C C/C Things just can't go on like before, but Em7 D/E Em7 Can we still be friends C Bm7 We had something to learn Am7 D Gmaj7 Now it's time for the wheel to turn C Bm7 Grains of sand, one by one A7sus4 A7 C/D D Before you know it, all gone Let's admit we made a mistake, but Can we still be friends Heartbreak's never easy to take, but Can we still be friends It's a strange, sad affair Sometimes seems like we just don't care Don't waste time feeling hurt We've been through hell together (*2) G/E D/E G/E D/E G/E D/E La la la la la la la la la D/B A/B D/B A/B D/B A/B La la la la la la la la la C/A G/A C/A G/A C/A G/A La la la la la la la la la G/D D G/D D G/C D/C La la la la la la La la (repeat lala, except 4th line is as follows:) G/D G/D D D La la la la (Can we still get together sometime You know life will still go on and on and on) We awoke from our dream Things are not always what they seem Memories linger on It's like a sweet, sad old song --------------------------------------------------------------------- (*1: Todd plays this on piano harmonizing the melody by alternating D and G triads with his right hand, while playing the C and E bass notes with his left. It's difficult to mimic this on guitar; my compromise is to not worry about keeping the melody note in the top of the triad, but just alternate the chords. Here is a line of tab showing the rhythm I use:) E--|--------|--------|--------|--------|- B--|7-8-87-7|-7-87-8-|8-7-7-87|----87--|- G--|7-7-77-7|-7-77-7-|7-7-7-77|----77--|- D--|7-9-97-7|-7-97-9-|9-7-7-97|----97--|- A--|--------|--------|7-7-7-77|----77--|- E--|8-8-88-8|-8-88-8-|--------|--------|- We can't play this game anymore, but can we still be friends D/C G/C Em7(G/E) D/E x x 7||111| 7||111| 7|11111 7|11111 2||||| 2|||3| ||||3| |||||| |||||| ||4||| ||4||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| ...something to learn... time for the wheel to turn C D/C Bm7 Am7 D Gmaj7 Em7 x x x x _x____ ox___o 3|11111 7||111| 72|333| 52|333| 5|1|||| |||||| |||||| |||||| 2||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| ||333| |||||| |||||| |||||| ||333| 1|||2| ||||1| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| ||34|| |||2|| ||3||| ...sand, one by one ... you know it, all gone C D/C Bm7 A7sus4 A7 C/D D7 x x x x x 3|11111 7||111| 72|333| 5111111 5111111 5|11111 5|11111 |||||| 2||||| |||||| |||||| |||2|| |||||| |||||| ||333| |||||| |||||| |3|4|| |3|||| |||||| ||3|4| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||| (*2 - this section changes meters in a clever way. The pattern is 2 bars of 3/4 time followed by one bar of 2/4 - very balletic!) La la la G/E D/E x x 7|11111 7|11111 This pattern is moved to 2nd fret for D/B - A/B ||||2| |||||| then to the nut position for C/A - G/A ||3||| |||||| |||||| |||||| G/D D G/C D/C x___xx x___xx x x x |||||| |||||| 7||222| 7||222| |||||| |||1|| 2|||3| 2||||| |||||| |||||| ||4||| |||||| |||2|| ||2||| |||||| |||||| 5|34||| 5|3|||| This section is played twice; on repeat, the last line lapses back into 4/4 time and consists of 2 beats of G/D and 2 of D.) -------------------------------------------------------- About my tab style: This message should be displayed in a mono-spaced font (e.g. courier,) or the chord diagrams and tablatures will look unaligned. The letter to the left of the slash in chord names like "A/D" refers to a triad, and the letter to the right refers to the bass note only. The number directly to the left of the chord diagram is the position on the guitar neck (or closest fret). "x" along the top means mute or deaden that string, "o" means let it ring open. The horizontal dashes in the tablature diagram correspond to 8th notes. If you see any mistakes, or have any corrections or alternate ways of playing any of my tabs, I'd love to hear from you. Please email me at lsprague@channel1.com or l.sprague@bull.com Last revised 10:34am Monday, November 24, 1997