St. Patrick's Day

I am going to stray a little from the Irish theme today, but it is okay because I'm focusing on a more specific song - 'St. Patrick's Day' by John Mayer. If you know me, you know that I am a huge John Mayer fan. Fan might not even be the best word for it. I literally remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard my first John Mayer song, as cliche as that saying is. It was burned in my memory like a turning point for my own life path. Say what you will about him, his music, or his bedroom escapades - he is my rock in the popular music hurricane of crap that we are forced to wade through everyday. He writes about things that matter and can rip on a guitar unlike anything I've ever seen before. 


This song is off of his first Album - 'Room for Squares' which is a bit more quaint and charming than his recent works. It's not about the holiday itself, but rather the idea that when in a relationship you can rest assured that you will be safe from your partner dumping you until after St. Patrick's Day because of all the winter holidays. An odd concept for a song, but really kind of true when you think about it. No one wants to be the douche that dumps his girlfriend around Valentine's Day. Here are the full lyrics in case you can't decipher his live cotton-mouth singing. 


Melodically this song is complex, rich and beautiful. When I purchased the chord book for this album I was so excited to learn to play this song. I turned to the very last entry in the book and gasped. I'd been playing guitar for what seemed to be most of my life and I had never, ever seen a song with so many chords. In fact, this song has over 30 chords in it. Truly. In addition to an impossible number of chords to memorize, some of them aren't even physically possible for me to form. An interesting tid-bit about John Mayer is that he has really big hands and enormous thumbs. He can play a separate bass line on his guitar via his thumb, which is awesome to listen to but often impossible to duplicate. So, disappointingly,  I can't play this song, but at least I can write about it. 


Can you think of another song that I should have written about today?