French Cafe Music, no Accordions ... yet

I finally learned two songs off the CD French Cafe put out by Putomayo World music. I have been meaning to learn them for awhile, but was always too busy. I initially tried finding the chords or tab on the web, but had no luck so I had to figure them out myself. The first song is La Mer Opale sung by Coralie Clément. Don't know what the songs are about, I don't speak a word of French. I even need the French-American dictionary when Reading Monsieur Pamplemousse and the author Michael Bond only throws in a sprinkling of French words. I expect he expects us to know them.

Intro: Dm \\\ \\\\ \\\\ \\\\

Verse: Dm \\\ \\\\ A\\\ \\\\ Gm \\\ C \\\ F \\\ A \\\ (twice)

Chorus:

Dmaj \\\ \\\\ \\\\ \\\\ G \\\ \\\\ B7 \\\ Em \\\ A7 \\\ Dmaj \\\

B7 \\\ Em \\\ A7 \\\ Dmaj \\\ B7 \\\ Em \\\ A7 \\\ Dm

You could play them as open chords, but I think they sound better as bar chords plus you can play alternating bass notes for each chord.

The second song, On N'a Pas Besoin by Paris Combo uses some different chords, the intro and start of the verse are just Dm \\\ A#7 \ A7 \ (twice) played at a steady choppy rhythm. I just used bar chords for these 3 chords. While the chorus is E \ D#7 \ D7 \ C#7 \ (twice) E \ D#7 \ D7 \ C#7 \ C7 \\\ A7 \\\ A#7 \\\ A7

Lyrics can be found on the web and you tube has both of the songs if you want to hear before you buy.

The D#7, D7, C#7 are based on the following C7 chord. Just move the chord down the neck 3 frets for the D#7 and then move up the neck a fret after every 2 beats.

The E chord I play is similar to an E major with the 5th in the bass but with only the root note (5th string 7th fret, 3rd string 9th fret) and the 3rd on the 4th string 6th fret. Mel Bay's Jazz Guitar Volumn Two book has the Major chord with the 5th in the bass, but I couldn't find a picture on-line. The A7 and A#7 could also be played as bar chords, but I like the major chord with the root in the bass better. For the A7, the fingering would be strings 2, 4 and 6 at the 5th fret and string 3 on the 6th fret. For the A#7, just slide down 1 fret.

There are a few more songs I really like on the CD, but these 2 were my favorites.