Atlantic City

[RobynShaye]

Desperately seeking tab for mandolin intro to The Band's version of "Atlantic City." I know it's in A with the A string used as a drone. Help me out anyone if you can.

[Tim Bowen]

While I can't be of specific help, I'll post, since nobody else has. My duo partner recently called the tune in A/F#m. While I've covered many tunes by The Band (including tunes that those guys covered!), I'd never played this tune before, and I happened to have a mandolin strapped on at the time. He was referencing Bruce Springsteen's spin on the tune.

A and E are the neutral root and fifth of A; the fifth and 2/9 of D; the sus4/11 and root of E; the b3 and b7 of F#m (or in reverse, F#m is the 6th scale degree and relative minor of A major). In any event, the open A and E strings present a variety of interesting textures and suspensions within this key signature, as mated with double stop grips on the lower two courses of strings. There are other inversions, but here's what I grabbed on the fly:

F#-7:

-0-
-0-
-4-
-6-

A:

-0-
-0-
-7-
-6-

D2:

-0-
-0-
-0-
-7-

E with a 3rd and a sus4, whatever this should be called*:

-0-
-0-
-6-
-4-

* whenever this minor 2nd interval cluster is included, arpeggiating the chord is really the only way to go. You don't want to strum it, or God forbid, chop it. If it's not to be arpeggiated, the 4th should be omitted entirely.


For what it's worth, I've used these and related grips in a cover of Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue".

[r.i.p.levon]

Desperately seeking tab for mandolin intro to The Band's version of "Atlantic City." I know it's in A with the A string used as a drone. Help me out anyone if you can.

It's been a while since this was posted, but thought I'd put this out there in case others are searching (as I have been forever). I'm no good at writing out tab, so let me know if this doesn't make any sense - here's what I figured out:

G: -x- -x- -x- -x- -x-
D: -7- -7- -7- -7- -7-
A: -0- -0- -4- -2- -0-
E: -5- -0- -0- -0- -x-

So, basically just walking down A-E-C#-B-A

Then the chords are just F#m, A, D, A...

Hope this helps.

[rayjohn66]

This was just what I was looking for Tim, and great explanation in how the chords are made up.

[Mandotarian]

For the little intro I play a 3 sets of triplets walking down like so

A: 7-7-7---0-0-0---0-0-0
E: 5-5-5---2-2-2---0-0-0

then walk down on the A string into the chords with quarter notes

A: 4-2-0

right into the chords

I use 6-4-0-0 for the F#m, 6-2-0-0 for the first A chord, 2-0-0-x for the D as more of a partial chord and then the 2-2-0-0 A power chord for the second A.

I while I hit the open A and E strings I' m not banging away on them, just sprinkling it in occasionally. I also arpeggiate the chords sometimes and use the full 2-2-4-5 A chord when doing that for the second A.

I don't really write tab so I hope this shows up ok.

Good luck!