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Bar Room Blues is an exclusive series of video guitar lessons by Steve “Red” Lasner covering classic blues songs from historically great guitarists like B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Buddy Guy, and many others. A new lesson will be released each week, so be sure to subscribe and check back often! Also, if you want more guitar lessons like these, be sure to check out Red’s Guitar Sherpa class.

“Born Under a Bad Sign” is a song written by Booker T. Jones and William Bell originally recorded by Albert King as the title track for the album Born Under a Bad Sign released in 1967. Several cover versions of the song exist, most notably by Chicago blues band Paul Butterfield Blues Band, British rock group Cream, Paul Rodgers, American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

The style of “Born Under a Bad Sign” is hallmark of Albert King in the late 60s. The lead guitar is bright, nasal and cutting, partly because of Albert King’s choice of a custom Gibson guitar with neck pickup selected. The looping bass line is composed of a C# pentatonic or blues scale while the piano and horn accompaniment remains major in its tonality. The unique mix of otherwise minor and major modes give the song a bright but harrowing sound.

The wide assortment of cover versions demonstrates Albert King’s ability to influence not only blues guitar, but also rock guitar. It is notable that Jimi Hendrix’s cover of “Born Under a Bad Sign” is essentially an extended guitar solo that explores King’s unique phrasing.

Read on for the full guitar lesson on how to play this classic blues song including video, tab, and jam tracks…

Guitar Lesson

Check out the tab and jam track below, and give this bar room blues song a try yourself!

Tab

Born Under A Bad Sign Tab

Jam Track

badsignMp3

Bar Room Blues is an exclusive series of video guitar lessons by Steve “Red” Lasner covering classic blues songs from historically great guitarists like B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Buddy Guy, and many others. A new lesson will be released each week, so be sure to subscribe and check back often! Also, if you want more guitar lessons like these, be sure to check out Red’s Guitar Sherpa class.