John Martyn’s
May You Never
This was the ultimate love song of an entire generation — it’s a great acoustic workout, too!
Transcription by Eric Roche.
This month we’re looking at the classic, definitive John Martyn song, ‘May You Never’. Taken from his 1973 album, Solid Air, the song has been covered subsequently by a number of artists, including Eric Clapton.
The guitar accompaniment I have transcribed contains many of the elements which makes Martyn’s style unique. Altered tunings, percussive right-hand slaps and modal harmonies are mixed tastefully with his fingerstyle playing. This transcription requires a capo on fret two — check out my Unplugged column in the July 97 issue of GT for notes on capo / tablature notation.
Performance notes
The arrangement uses the popular drop D tuning (ie drop your low string down a whole tone to D). Martyn uses a capo on the second fret and, because he proceeds to play in shapes from the key of D major, the song actually sounds as if it’s in the key of E. I’ve notated the chord names in the key of E as this more accurately reflects the standard notation on the upper stave.
The harmony is simple — mostly I IV and V type progressions with the odd inversion and dominant seventh here and there. However, the combination of capo and altered tuning produces some unorthodox chord voicings / shapes. They are, for the most part, played consistently through the song.
John Martyn’s right-hand slapping technique is the other important element in the guitar part. He creates the impression of a back-beat by bringing his right hand down sharply on the strings and producing a rim shot type sound. It is indicated in both the standard and tab notation by an ‘x’. This sound is composed of the sound of his right-hand knuckles hitting the strings and the sound of the strings hitting the upper frets of the guitar neck, just above the soundhole. These percussive sounds are played on the second and fourth beats of the bar, creating the feel of a percussion player playing along with the track. This technique is used throughout the song. In bars 17-18 (and the repeats of those bars) the technique becomes a little more sophisticated; the first two xs are a quick down / up stroke on the muted strings. The third x indicates a light percussive right-hand slap over the soundhole, which strikes both the strings and the guitar soundboard. This technique is used three times in those two bars. It’s important that the third percussive slap is on the beat, as this helps to maintain the feel of the backbeat.
Apart from the above techniques, the song uses standard fingerstyle technique — have fun and I’ll see you next month.
Eric Roche
Guitar Techniques
1 February 1998
