I worked up the "We Five" hit "You Were On My Mind" lately. The lead singer is a girl, singing (at first) way down low (for her). I had to transpose it for my range, and it's working surprisingly well.
The original was probably in E, but that was even way higher than the usual tenor-based song. I kept dropping it until I found a pair of keys that were first-position playable: G and A. I have a hard time imagining someone deliberately modulating into F# (from E), but if that's not how they did it, I'm mystified. I suppose it could be capoed, what, 9? (so G would sound in E), but that's very unlikely. Maybe it was C and D, capo 5. There's a prominent sus4 chord, which is B4 when the key is E, which seems unlikely to work, too. I thought I'd eventually find a "natural" place to play it, but I'm not convinced I have.
Anyway, it's a favorite of mine (even if this isn't the "right" way to play it). I was surprised (and pleased) to find that it was playable at all, and didn't sound terrible without the pervasive vocal harmonies. I guess I'll aim at capo 3, unless I end up straining "in situ". I can never tell at home, except just by the actual pitches involved, which seem attainable. It definitely had that "jingle jangle" Byrds-like guitar sound -- maybe Warren's guitar can sound like that, given proper knob-tweaking.
It's good because I need more fast(er) songs. I guess my problem with them comes from various sources. One is that I'm lame at strumming, which comes from a combination of my not doing it much ('cuz I'm lame at it, 'cuz I don't do it much...), and that my guitar doesn't really strum well. Turns out when I use my old only-6-strings-on-it 12-string, I strum pretty OK. Not sure what the difference is -- the string spacing would seem to be part of it, but it can't be that much different. I've considered hauling it in to the coffee shops, for just the strummers, but can't bear the thought of the hassle -- both of bringing it in, and changing guitars back and forth all night.
The other problem is that I feel like most rock songs, even simple pop-rock, really require a bass and drums, and I feel like a Guy-Who-Doesn't-Know-Any-Better when I play 'em anyway (sans bass and drums). The softer, slower stuff (e.g., James Taylor) features far less prominent bass and drums, and I feel like my rendition is closer to what they "ought" to sound like. (An exception is "I Saw Her Standing There", but I'm doing that "as" a blues tune (with, in fact, a far blues-ier bass line than the original), and pretending that it's no longer a "rock" song.
"You Were On My Mind", though, and a few more, are fast, without relying on the bass and drummer to drive it. So it sounds just fine to me, played by me.
