How To Play “Mustang Sally” On Guitar
If there’s one song that is requested perhaps more than any other song at a blues gig, it’s probably the great Wilson Pickett song Mustang Sally. Now you could argue that it’s not really even a blues song. But that wouldn’t get you very far with the audience. Check out the picture on the right and see who’s playing in Wilson’s band.
But who cares. It’s still a great song. It’s just one of those songs that gets any crowd going and can create instant rapport with your audience. Every blues band should have it somewhere in their repertoire, if for no other reason than to get that tip jar jumpin’.
And of course, the hard-core blues fans in the audience will poo poo you for playing it. But the heck with them. If you plan on making a living as a blues musician, you’ll need to play Mustang Sally at some time or another in your career. It just about always gets a crowd going.
And yes it is a very simple song to learn. It’s basically just the 3 main blues chords… 1, 4, and 5. So it is something you can add to your song list in no time. Of course, finding someone who can sing it like Wicked Wilson Pickett will be the challenge. Also the Alan Jackson drum part will be a challenge for your drummer too. He’s simple and solid as a rock.
Anyway, here’s a few of versions of the song. As you can imagine, it’s been played by many, many bands and everyone does it a little differently. Learn all the versions and you’ll be covered. So here’s the song by a few different people to get you started.
Then we have Red Lasner to go over the chords with you.
