ZZ Top · Tres Hombres · song 2
Jesus Just Left Chicago tuning.
Jesus Just Left Chicago (ZZ Top, 1973) is in E Standard, about 24 cents sharp (A ≈ 446), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
24 ¢ sharp
Measured on this song itself: Tune moves every string +24 ¢.
ZZ Top · Tres Hombres · 1973
About Jesus Just Left Chicago
Jesus Just Left Chicago is the slow blues on Tres Hombres (1973) that follows Waitin' for the Bus without a break. Billy Gibbons takes it at a crawl, with long bends and space between the phrases, and the rhythm part is in E Standard on the tabs.
This is the song that does not match its album. TuneLit measured Tres Hombres at concert pitch (+3.5 ¢), but Jesus Just Left Chicago about 24 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 446.1), on both the 1987 remix CD and the 2006 remaster of the original mix. It has its own Tune button, set 24 ¢ up. With the album's setting, a guitar would sit almost a quarter of a semitone flat of the record, which is plain to hear in a slow blues full of held notes.
Two things trip players up. First, the segue: Waitin' for the Bus runs at concert pitch and this song about 20 ¢ higher, so play along with the pair and you must retune between them or pick a middle reference. Second, the most-viewed lead tab lists a strange tuning with the A string lowered to G; the rhythm tab and the record fit plain E Standard.
Tip: Use the song's own +24 ¢ button, not the album's, and check it on the first long bend.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +24 ¢, the notes Jesus Just Left Chicago was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Jesus Just Left Chicago sits 24 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Jesus Just Left Chicago along with the record: its lowest open note and your String 6 should ring together without a wobble.
Or the other way round
Move the record into your tuning
Rather keep your guitar as it is? Let Play along move Jesus Just Left Chicago instead. Add your own copy, for example from your CD (it never leaves your device); the link already says the song is in E Standard +24 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Jesus Just Left Chicago moves down 24 cents, at its own speed. Slow it down or loop a few bars to learn it, and save the result as a WAV file.
Questions
What tuning is Jesus Just Left Chicago in?
E Standard +24 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.