Week 48: Queen Bee



Taj Mahal

The Man

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr was born on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, New York. His parents were a Caribbean jazz arranger and an African American gospel singer who grew up during the “Harlem Renaissance”, a cultural movement spanning the 1920’s to 40’s characterised by a feeling of racial pride and the exploration of folk traditions on African American and ‘coloured’ identity.

His father was a well known jazz pianist and arranger – labelled “the Genius” by none other than Ella Fitzgerald – and got Taj started on the piano, clarinet, trombone and harmonica. His house was constantly visited by Caribbean, African and American musicians, giving the young Taj a love of African and Caribbean rhythms. The family moved to Springfield, Massachusetts before Taj turned 10 and his father was killed in a workplace accident soon after, deeply affecting the young musician.

A new neighbour – nephew of bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Cruddup – introduced Taj to the acoustic guitar at age 13 or 14. At 17 he adopted the name Taj Mahal inspired by a social conscious, the civil rights movement and the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi to promote freedom and civil rights in India. Taj’s first job was as a farmer and it remains a love of his, inspiring a lot of his work.

Moving to Santa Monica, California in 1964, he formed a band with Ry Cooder and was signed to Columbia Records. The mixed race band didn’t receive much airplay and broke up, and Taj turned to a solo career, releasing a self titled debut in 1968. In the same year, he released the hugely influential “The Natch’l Blues”, introducing “she caught the katy” to the blues lexicon.

Taj released a string of albums in the late 60s and 70s, before relocating to Hawaii in 1981 and taking a short hiatus. Taj Mahal is recognized as a pioneer of “world music”, incorporating reggae, calypso, jump, zydeco, jazz and gospel themes and rhythms into what essentially is country blues. He has won two Grammy’s for best blues album, and his music continues to explore the diversity of the folk traditions inherent in the blues.



The Song

Queen Bee comes from Taj’s 1997 Grammy Winning album “Senor Blues”. It’s quite a different song from most blues, using a 23 bar progression with 3 different sections, and features a major 7th chord as distinct from the natural (or minor) 7th that is common all throughout blues. The song uses the same 23 bar progression with very minor variations for the intro, all verse progressions and as a backing for the harmonica solo, so thereäs not that much to learn!

It’s played in standard tuning in the key of B flat, so but a capo on the 3rd fret. It uses standard chord shapes – G, C and Em – and features an alternating bassline throughout. Taj mutes the hell out of the bass notes, he really kills them so they sound more like pitched percussion. Experiment with moving your hand well forward of the bridge and using the side of your palm to deaden the bass 3 strings. It’s awkward, but produces great separation between the bass and melody lines.

The opening Bb section is 4 bars repeated, starting with a G shape, moving to an Em shape then back to the G. The thumb alternates between the low E and the D strings while the fingers pick out a great little melody. The key to getting this right in the use of the open G string to lead into each of the first two bars and the separation between the bright melody and the muted bass. There’s a little slide on the G string that shouldn’t be rushed – it takes a fair bit of practice to get the timing right.

The next section, in Eb, is simply beautiful. Again there’s a lead in note and Taj alternates between Cmaj7 and G shapes. The Cmaj7 is a regular C chord but you don’t use your index finger – i.e. a C chord with the B string played open. The melody is just open strings but is played with great ‘touch’ and timing. Less is more. This 4 bar section is repeated twice, but the second time Taj cuts off the last bar and heads into the last section, so 7 bars in total.

The final section, in Bb, 4 bars repeated 4 times, really weird because Taj reverses the bassline – instead of low E to D he changes to D to low E, and alternates the note played on the D string. This changes the base chord from Bb to Bb6, G to a G6 shape. The melody is again mainly just perfectly timed open strings played with great touch, almost slightly behind the beat, again that less is more philosophy. The sudden change of the string the thumb plays and the alternating D string note seems really counter intuitive and takes a while to get right. When played well, however, it creates a fair bit of tension and really builds up to the sudden G chord and pause before going into the next cycle.

This song requires a pretty good alternating thumb technique and is a lot trickier than it first seems. The end result is a really funky and unique sound, and really displays the genius of Taj’s creativity.



The Lyrics

Bb Gm Bb Sweeter than a honey bee, yeah, baby been sweet on me Sweeter than a honey bee, yeah, my queen bee Ebmaj7 Bb Oh she rock to my soul, ooh love me to my soul Oh she rock me to my soul, oh she rock me to my soul Bb Bb6 Bb Bb6 (etc) She's a strutter, she can shake it some yeah, watch her now look at her run Strut now, shake it some, oh dancing having fun Ooh she rock me to my soul, oh she love me to my soul Ooh rock me to my soul, oh rock me to my soul Honey in the honey pot oh, and the pot, the pot is hot Honey in the honey pot, oh and the pot is what you got To lova to rocka me to my soul, oh love me to my soul Ooh rock me to my soul, oh rock me to my soul Harmonica Solo Baby won't you come by me yeah, spare me this misery Sugar won't you come by me, oh I know you'll agree, 'gree, 'gree, 'gree Rock me to my soul, oh to rock me to my soul Ooh rock me to my soul, oh rock me to my soul Sweeter than a honey bee oh, baby been sweet on me Sweeter than a honey bee oh, my queen bee Ooh she rock me to my soul, oh rock me to my soul Ooh rock me to my soul, oh rock me to my soul These songs were made for lovers Lovers and lovers and lovers and lovers and lovers And lovers and lovers and lovers and lovers and lovers And lovers and lovers and lovers My soul, my soul Queen bee Queen

The Progression