Title: Suspicious Minds
Subtitle:
Artist: Elvis Presley
Album: The Number One Hits
Author: Francis Zambon
Copyright: 1968
Tabled by:
Instructions:
Notices: This tab is taken from GUITAR ONE Magazine: March
2002.

" Most folks think of Elvis' career as a two-part drama.
There was part one, subtitled "Skinny Elvis," wherein
the kid from Memphis changed the face of popular
music as little girls screamed and adults alternately
snickered at or censored him. Part two featured Fat
Elvis, the tub from Graceland who grew increasingly
out of touch with the world as little girls snickered and
over-the-hill adults caught his Vegas act. But the
oft-forgotten prelude to Act II could have rewritten
musical history if only the script was followed more
closely. This was Comeback Elvis.

Although the '60s found his career cast in concrete
(bad movies, syrupy ballads, zero live perfromances),
Elvis began to return to his rock 'n' roll roots by 1968.
He released new, harder-edged tunes, and his
legendary telvision show from that year (dubbed "the
comeback special") displaeyd his still-fit body in black
leather as he sweated and jammed at his spontaneous
best. "Suspicoius Minds" was recorded in January
1970 and may have been the peak of the Comeback
Elvis intermission.

THAT DRIVING VERSE AND CHORUS

"Suspicious Minds" is built on an insistent rhythmic
groove that is carried by the opening (and deceptively
difficult) guitar figure. Before you work yourself into a
frenzy trying to figure out its string skipping and hybrid
picking rom the recording, get comfortable with the
chords and build up the rhythm with your strumming.
Try continuous eigth-note downstrums with accents on
every beat, set your metronome to 116 beats
per minute, and then count each beat with a number.
If you're doing it right, you should be counting
"one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and," etc. Each
number will be an accented strum played with a firm
stroke that includes all the strings of the chord. The
unaccented strums (the "ands") can be lightly
feathered on just the lower strings, perhaps just the
lowest note of each chord. This strumming pattern is
shown in Fig. 1, and it will get you through most of the
song, except for that pesky soul-ballad bridge.

THAT PESKY SOUL-BALLAD BRIDGE

Elvis puts a brake on the rockin' rhythm to testify
about lettin' his love survive. Elvis always worked with
consummate professional musicans who could follow
his twists and turns, and they turn on a dime from 4/4
at 116 beats per minute to 6/8 at 148 beats per
minute. It's not even a related change; it's just a feel
thing, so go on and feel it. Set your metronome to 148
and count "one-two-three-four-five-six," once again
strumming on each downbeat. This time, though,
accent the first and fourth beats. This pattern is
shown in Fig. 2. The only way to practice this
transition from Chorus to Bridge is to turn the
metronome off and feel it. If you've played each part
separately often enough, it will be like changing gears
on a 10-speed bike.

THAT CATCHY GUITAR FIGURE

For those who wish to conquer it, the opening guitar
figure is shown in Fig. 3. It's a tricky bit of picking that
employs hybrid picking (pick plus fingers) and
hammered-on notes to outline the G-C/G changes of
the verse. When it changes to C and F/C, your best
bet is to play the same shape at the fifth fret using a
barre with your first finger and your fourth finger for the
bass ntoe (at the eighth fret). Move the same shape
up two frets for the D and G/D. Or, hire a
consummate professional to play that part and focus
on strumming it.
THANK YUH VERUH MUCH. "

Tempo: 116 BPM
Tracks: 2
Instruments:
Bars: 73

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