"Stroll On"

One of the other few songs crafted during the Page/Beck era of the Yardbirds lineup, this tune, "Stroll On" is a slight reworking of the classic song "Train Kept A Rollin". "Train Kept A Rollin" was originally written by Tiny Bradshaw in 1951 as a "Jump Blues" Number. The Yardbirds recorded a cover of this song in 1965 and released it on their album "Rave Up". For "Stroll On" The lyrics have been changed of course, and the intro is a bit different, but it's basically the same as "Train Kept A Rollin". The song itself was recorded in 1966 and was played for the Michelangelo Antonioni film "Blow Up".

For this song I once again used my Fender Baja Telecaster played through my Vox AC15, but this time I included an Ibanez Tube Screamer in the mix (I live in an apartment and I have limits on how loud I can naturally overdrive a tube amp).

The intro is very similar to the intro to "Train Kept A Rollin" except it begins with a single note drone (The note is an A played around the 14th fret of the G string) that played until it begins to feedback. Then launches intro the intro riff that looks like this...

e-------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------
G----14b16---14b16---14--12--------------------
D-----------------------------------14-14------------
A------------------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------14/0--

As opposed to "Train Kept a Rollin" this is just a single note riff played around the fourteenth fret. Very simple, but sounds very cool. All you have to do is place your ring finger on the 14th fret of the G String, hit it and bend up a whole note completely. Do this twice in quick succession then hit the 14th fret without the bend, play the 12th fret with your index finger, then play the 14th fret of the D string also in quick succession. Play this riff twice then play the 14th fret on the low E string and slide up the fretboard and release.

The rest of the song is basically the same rhythm all the way through. And it goes like this:

(G Chord)
Strollin' on,
'Cos it's all gone,
The reason why.
You made me cry,
(A Chord)
By tellin' me,
You didn't see.
(G Chord)
The future bore,
Our love no more.
(A Chord)
If you want to know,
(B Chord)
I love you so,
(A Chord, G Chord, F Chord, G Chord)
And I don't want to let you go.

None of these are open chords so I will show you what they look like:
G  Chord                                    

e-------------        
B-------------
G-------------
D-------------
A-----5------
E-----3-------

A Chord
e-------------        
B-------------
G-------------
D-------------
A-----7------
E-----5-------

B Chord
e-------------        
B-------------
G-------------
D-------------
A-----9------
E-----7-------

F Chord
e--------------       
B-------------
G-------------
D-------------
A-----6------
E-----4-------

It is imperative that you employ palm muting through the song or else it won't sound right. Additionally you need to pump the strings, meaning, you need to provide a sort of back and forth pressure on them, for example...

G  Chord                                    
e-----------------------------------------------------      
B----------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------
A-----5-----5-----5--5--5--5----5---5---5---5---
E-----3-----3-----0--0--0--0----3---3---0---3---

Play all the chords using that rhythm and you'll nail this song no problem. Of course it takes practice, but once you've got it you can show off this Yardbirds tune to anybody you know and say, "Yeah, Beck and Page? No problem!".