I’ve been ruminating over how the chord changes to Crazy Fingers ever came about. The changes don’t feel like something you’d come at organically outside of some melody.

Last night my son turned me on to Distorto from the ‘75 studio rehearsals and I now think that Jerry had this really interesting melody in mind that he then layered chords over, Give it a listen if you’re not familiar: https://youtu.be/05M5sjlP2YA

The ladder-rung like guitar melody on Distoto keeps climbing and descending over and over again (anticipating the eventual lyric melody) and you can make out Bobby’s chords and hear the song taking shape. Very cool.

I’m wondering if those ladder melodies are really just the arpeggiated notes of the chords? My ear isn’t good enough to tell without my guitar in hand. Must investigate!

And look, let’s not ignore just how crazy it is to hear JG playing with that tone!