Keith Richards version is awesome and whoever did the video collage of Keith in the KZfaq version did a fantastic job. I go back to watch that video every few months just for the pics.

Thank you Stefan Grossman. I saw you way back in 1967 in the UK (Ware, Herts). You were an inspiration, and still are.

What a fine, relaxed, folksy way of teaching...love this kind of music..

If You want to learn many finger style country blues songs this is the man to watch. 40 yrs experince and He lived with Rev. Gary Davis and learned.

God bless Stefan Grossman

How many times over the last 30 years I have been staring at my thumb after watching stefano videos...and thought IMPOSSIBLE....carry on picking,,ciaooooo

Stefan- way to be! You're lessons are wonderful. Keep up the good work

I like what you said about verses for this song. I collected a lot of different one's but always tried to keep it to the "story telling" style. The version I originally learned was Dave Van Ronk's back in the 60's or 70's. I always wondered how old this song was. Thanks for the lesson and history.

Brilliant as usual,thank you and keep posting David in England.

excellently filmed and very helpful guitarist advice I've begun to really love the blues by now

Brilliant, thanks for posting. I love the live Dylan version on the B side of the single of Love Sick

great lesson simple and clear,thanks mr Grossman

WHO WOULD DISLIKE THIS

Thank you Stefan!

Grossman is a Legend..

Just amazing!

Really great lesson thank you guitar shop

Stefan Grossman I have a book of guitar tunings that he did when he was in his 20's great folk guitarist!

Thanks Stefan, very instructive. Great song. Dan in Iowa

First Phrase: 4:32 Chorus: 5:29 Guitar Bridge: 6:03 Splitscreen Playthough: 7:22

wonderful

great guitarist hilarious vocal delivery

good teaching!!

I wish I had only one finger pop-up. Beautiful playing as usual.

I like it when he says, lets se what kind of iders we can come up with

hi maestro...your friend and student Marcello from Frascati

Stefan can play...Good god. Like butter.

Fantastic! Beautiful playing! I have fall in love with picking. I want to get a Martin. Can you make a recommendation? I was thinking a Martin D28. I really enjoy your playing!

Stefan Grossman en concert exceptionnel le 21 mai 2011 à Sauveterre de Rouergue en Aveyron, il faudra y être absolument !!!

Very great sound the blues it's all!! c.l

Haha, with such a joyful impression "Cocaine, all around my brain" like reading a bedtime story to a child xD Great picking tho!!!

Woaw. this is hard :)

This is excellent. Do you have any Blind Willie McTell tutorials. Are you able to answer the question?

ok so i finally managed to play this fantastic tune, excellently taught might i add. the only thing i cant learn how to do, is talk or even sing while im playing it. does anyone have any hints on how to practise this?

thanks for your help on this one stefan. nice franklin - for a second i thoght it was the new martin....shucks!

Keith Richards did a great version of this tune.

Satiesfied, and tickled too.

@LuccaTotti Good Stuff!! Also Dave van Ronk is preety nice

nice work Just wondering about your guitars does your streel string guitar have the same width as nylon or classical guitar. I just wondering how hard it is to do this song on a stee sting guitar

I think Stefan plays a Franklin guitar here. You may get a link via his website

@jaydex5 While GD may not play to a rigid framework (whatever that is), he does not mess with TIME. He sometimes appears to drop or anticipate a beat, but ALWAYS gets back in time. Count and see. One of those headshaking things he can do. (Present tense, he not dead). @gralang At last! It's been like talking to my shoe. Thank you for your support. God bless you brother!

If you were to buy a new Taylor or Martin, which models would you chose to get that deep rich sound?

What kind of guitar is he playing? I’ve never seen that one? I have his black and white pocket booklet How To Play Blues Guitar. Great book.

Stefan has much to offer. If there are those out there who claim his arrangements are not perfectly correct in the historical sense, then make your own youtube video and teach us the proper way. Of course, Stefan Grossman may have tapes of GD that record him actually playing the song exactly the way he teaches it, but that's another matter. As has been noted, there is no perfect way to play the blues. The blues masters would have laughed at the thought that there is.

Love, Devil and the Blues!

davy graham or nick drake are my personal faves

Great blues... Keith Richards's version is good too.Thanks Stefan! 🎵🎵🎵

Ciao Stefan

@ristau Rev. Gary Davis is the inspiration, not Keith Richards. Stefan learned this from Rev Gary Davis.

Nice. It took me a few weeks to really get it down but now I can play it quite well. I prefer the version by keith richards but some of the licks in here sound pretty good when inserted into other versions.

Great, really great What's this guitar your are playing with please ?

Hello There I live in England I am 72 and just begun learning Piedmont Blues etc etc How can I get the Tab book and DVD you mention in this You tube Video Help here please My name is Les I am a novice really but having some fun learning this stuff

Do you play the C on the 3rd fret A str. with the G on the 3rd fret E str. in that C pos.?

Hey you wouldn't happen to have a link of where to buy the guitar Stefan's using would you? At least the brand and model?

What guitar is he using?

what is the old fashoin pickin ! i love gary but cant figure it out becasue he changes so much

Hmm. Going by the title, I thought this would be super fast. 😄

hahaha 3:50 "so that was cocaine" :)

Where do I get this DVD from?

@Alphabetsword davy grahams version is where its at

He's doing it the regular Travis style : Thumb: bass to higher note, not like Dave Van Ronks reverse thumb style wich I prefer.

whats the fingerpicking pattern? i can't work it out

does anyone have the tabs for this version? i have a rough time learning only by video, and i would like to have the tabs to compare too thanks!

awesome... very similar to townes van zandt, or is townes van zandt very similar to the reverend gary davies, the music of course... lyrics are different.

same, is there n e one that teaches that?

Sorry but if you students out there listen to the Reverend's versions of "Cocaine", you will notice that GD does NOT tack on an extra 2beat bar after the 4th bar to accommodate the E to F bass run. The E to F always falls on the 3rd & 4th beats of bar 4. Similarly in the bridge which should read /C7 4 beats/ E 4 beats/ F 6 beats with E and F falling on beats 7 and 8. It is a lot easier to play it the way SG does in this clip, but do you want easy or do you want correct?

did he crib this from Bromberg?

You take Sally I'll take Sue Ain't no difference between the two Cocaine.............. Running around my brain. Jackson Brown ....... Album... Running on Empty

I notid that Stefan didn't play the C root in the bass and played the G note instead, when playing the C chord after the G7 chord. But it sounded right to me.

@jovesheerwater Dude Stephan would be the first person to tell you to listen to and study from the Reverend's original recordings. Since we don't have the ability to go to Gary's house and learn from him directly, Stephan is breaking it down for us probably the same way Gary did for him.

Tab please...................!

This is just so fucking hard I cant do it!

It's a Franklin guitar, built by Nick Kukich.

@GwarMaggot: You're right. Somehow, just by listening closely, I managed to 'break it down' without going to his house even once. You need to read my previous comments to understand the gripe. Btw Doood, I don't think you know the Reverend well enough to be on first name terms.

@gatemouthbrown Easy to Understand, Hard to Master :)

You are right. But fingerpickers usually play the root bas note when playing walking bass lines. BUt rules are to be broken. Thank god.

Plus Cash didn't even write that version, he just performed it

@freddysmith123: If SG was playing his own composition or his own version of 'Cocaine' then of course there would be no correct or incorrect - however he is allegedly showing his students how the Rev plays 'Cocaine'. And not doing it. If you compare this posting to the Reverend's original, you will notice that the point I'm making is accurate. However it is quite possible that your cloth ears prevent you from noticing this.

i dont know if your still active, but if you are, is that a small mistake from you when you roll from the e major to the f? thinking about in the end when you show the verse chorus.

i went to mister meyer's place and looked into mister meyer's face and he said: "cocaine's all around your brain!"....... MUAHHAHAHAHHA, hahad dvmkdaklwef, GAGAGAGARUMPH SCHRUMPH!!! i'm laughing till i die. ya, no, maybe, i'snt that funny but a little bit.

What is the picking pattern? I cant figure out how to play it without it.

Hunter S. tompson, yes

Find this impossible to learn from

The open e doesn't sound right

Yes, I missed by a factor of 3. But if you divide $3000/3, $1000 is still a big fortune for Mr. Yamaha (mbuselco). Hey, Mr. Yamaha, SORRY!

He adds an extra beat on E-F bass line. Davis played it in 4/4, this adds a 5/4 bar and throws off the pulse & continuity.

Not bad, Stefan Grossman is a great player and very pleasant sounding but I wish he'd broken the song down a bit more, namely which frets to play with which fingers and the fingerpicking pattern.

Thank you for posting this. These lessons have always been helpful. Check out my blues guitar vids if you would like. 8 string guitar....

How the hell can you play this song while singing. Shits hard bro.

John Martyn's version is the best

Sawiopp

No, It's a Franklin guitar, and it's very wide priced (around $3000) Sorry!!!!

well, he can't sing at all, that's a negative thing, but still a pretty nice guitar playing with so much feeling, keep this on at least ! thank you for all hints.

his action look so low

When you start singing it I start laughing. Your vocals plus the lyrics makes me wannna pee myself. Very crisp playing though. Work on those Vokes though.

Kieth Richards version is good but nick drakes version is phenomenal

I love Johnny Cash, but you can't be serious......

cocain blues always belongs to CASH !

The timing is off.

I can't follow you.