Boat Behind by Kings Of Convenience
Tabbed by Simon Bance, February 2011
I spent a long time thinking overthis one, trying to find the perfect live video that would show me the subtle differences in what the two guys are playing.
But I have to conclude, that there really are no differences!
Eirik and Erlend are playing the same chords, albeit they are hitting slightly different strings.
Check the live version below where they have no viola or cello and it is just two guitars; this must be how they wrote the song originally. Then, later when they had the string musicians with them they adapted it for two guitars.
That's why in this song we have very unusual guitar by KOC standards because they usually never play such similar parts.
OK, enough explanation...
This song is mainly made of one main riff and I wil give that first.
I will tab the album version first and then show you how to play the guitar-only version later, but it is easy 😉
***Eirik***
Tuning; Standard (no capo)
Eirik plays on the down beat.
Chords: Amin7, Dmin7, Emin7
Main riff
e|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
B|--------------------------------|6-------6-------6-------6-------|
G|5-------5-------5-------5-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
D|5-------5-------5-------7-------|7-------7-------7-------7-------|
A|7-------7-------7-------5-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
E|5-------5-------5-------5-------|--------------------------------|
e|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
B|6-------6-------8-------8-------|--------------------------------|
G|5-------5-------7-------7-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
D|7-------7-------9-------9-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
A|5-------5-------7-------7-------|7-------7-------7-------7-------|
E|--------------------------------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
Meanwhile...
***Erlend***
Tuning; Standard (no capo)
... Erlend is playing on the upbeat with the same chord shapes, but hitting the higher strings.
N.B. He also plays on the downbeat, but heavily muted so I don't tab it here.
WOAH WOAH WOAH TIME OUT!!!
People, let's just get one thing straight here. I hear it time and time again, people making this mistake when they are learning the guitar:
They think that "higher strings" means the strings highest up relative to planet Earth (radially from the core, against the Earth's gravitational force) but that is plain wrong.
On a guitar the "top e" string is the sting with the highest pitch, i.e. the one at the top of the tab notation, notated "e".
"e" is the top string of the guitar, and the notes close to e are the higher strings. Bottom "E" is the thicker string and has a lower pitch.
Rant over...
Main riff
e|----5-------5-------5-------5---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
B|----5-------5-------5-------5---|----6-------6-------6-------6---|
G|----5-------5-------5-------5---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
D|----5-------5-------5-------7---|----7-------7-------7-------7---|
A|----7-------7-------7-------5---|--------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
e|----5-------5-------7-------7---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
B|----6-------6-------8-------8---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
G|----5-------5-------7-------7---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
D|----7-------7-------9-------9---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
A|--------------------------------|----7-------7-------7-------7---|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
For both parts you should experiment with your strumming technique to mimic the sound on the album/videos. Tabs are a very mechanical way of representing guitar tchnique, which contains many subtleties.
Here you can experiment with which strings you hit on the strumming and you will find it naturally.
By the way, you can easily play both of those parts at once, for a solo guitar version. I will tab a video soon.
CHORUS
***Eirik***
Now I will continue with the chorus with "Woooooh oh oh ooooh oh oh oooh! I can never belong to you! " :)
It's easy, again...
Chords are Cmaj, Emin7, Dmin7, Emin7, Amin7.
e|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
B|----------------8-------8-------|6-------6-------6-------6-------|
G|9-------9-------7-------7-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
D|10------10------9-------9-------|7-------7-------7-------7-------|
A|10------10------7-------7-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
E|8-------8-----------------------|--------------------------------|
e|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
B|6-------6-------8-------8-------|--------------------------------|
G|5-------5-------7-------7-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
D|7-------7-------9-------9-------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
A|5-------5-------7-------7-------|7-------7-------7-------7-------|
E|--------------------------------|5-------5-------5-------5-------|
and
***Erlend***
CHORUS
Same chords, but on the upbeat and hitting higher strings.
e|----8-------8-------7-------7---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
B|----8-------8-------8-------8---|----6-------6-------6-------6---|
G|----9-------9-------7-------7---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
D|----10------10------9-------9---|----7-------7-------7-------7---|
A|----10------10------------------|--------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
e|----5-------5-------7-------7---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
B|----6-------6-------8-------8---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
G|----5-------5-------7-------7---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
D|----7-------7-------9-------9---|----5-------5-------5-------5---|
A|--------------------------------|----7-------7-------7-------7---|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
Then there is a bridge section where Erlend strums the following chords:
8 10 10 9 0 0
x 8 10 9 10 0
8 10 10 9 0 0
x 8 10 9 10 0
8 10 10 9 0 0
x 7 9 7 8 7
x 5 7 5 6 5
and during the bridge ***Eirik*** plays something like (taken from the the "Live At The Balaclan" version)...
e|--------------------------------|--------------0-----------------|
B|--------------5-----------------|----1-----1-------1-------------|
G|----4-----4---------------------|--2-----2---2-------------------|
D|--5-----5---5-------------------|3-------------------------------|
A|3-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
e|--------------------------------|--------------0-----------------|
B|--------------5-----------------|----1-----1-------1-------------|
G|----4-----4---------------------|--2-----2---2-------------------|
D|--5-----5---5-------------------|3-------------------------------|
A|3-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
e|--------------------------------|--------------0-----------------|
B|--------------5-----------------|----0-----0-------0-------------|
G|----4-----4---------------------|--0-----0---0-------------------|
D|--5-----5---5-------------------|2-------------------------------|
A|3-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
e|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
B|----1-----1-----1-----1---------|----1-----1-----1-----1---------|
G|--2-----2-----2-----2-----2-----|--2-----2-----2-----2-----2-----|
D|0-----0-----0-----0-------------|0-----0-----0-----0-------------|
A|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
In the Live At The Balaclan version they finish with an instrumental section but they are playing the last two bars of the main riff.
OK, that's everything you need to play it, so I hope you have fun playing it :)
Simon
| / slide up
| \ slide down
| h hammer-on
| p pull-off
| ~ vibrato
| + harmonic
| x Mute note