So far I have seen several different transcriptions of this song: the Ultimate 90's compilation version, the I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got songbook version and the single-sheet release. All are different. Is anyone here familiar with these versions/have an opinion on which is the best? The Ultimate 90's version looks really weird, the notes are played quite low.

I also noticed this error in the single-sheet version:

All the flowers that you planted, mother
In the back yard
All died in the wind and the rain

At first I thought "what a stupid mistake!" but the more I thought about it it seems to be an unintentional improvement on the lyrics. Much clearer and haunting image, making the same point but with more visuals.
[This message was edited Thu Jan 15 0:23:53 PST 2004 by MrSquiggle]
[This message was edited Thu Jan 15 0:25:26 PST 2004 by MrSquiggle]

MrSquiggle said:

Flowers die all the time because of 'wind' and 'rain'. It's not haunting at all. What's haunting is that flowers choose to die when a person has departed. Unless, ofcourse, that person was responsible for watering the sorry mofo's.

Can't help you with the sheet music question though, sorry!

And there's also the sheet music in 'The Hits 1 /2' songbbok which was released alongside 'The Hits / B Sides' release.

It bears the same lyric mistake.

langebleu said:

talk about haunting...that avatar of langebleu is haunting...

When I played it back I got:

sugar, not mother

"All died when you went away"


that's my take.
....
[This message was edited Sun Jan 18 8:46:36 PST 2004 by NFO]

talmuzic said:

The DUDE is haunting, Tal. He knows EVERYTHING. I mean, EVERYTHING. what did I call it? Nano-trivial information? Micro-nothingness? I forget. Dudeman is like a stickler encyclopedia.

But in a nice way.

I usually find those "Ultimate 90's" compilation books to be crap. They usually turn out funny arrangements, change the keys, and generally make things a pain in the ass if you're trying to stay true to the original. The books are usually okay as far as the chord changes, but depending on your approach, this may not really matter. If you're gonna read the music, go with the single sheet. But I think the best approach is to just use your ears. A tune like "Nothing Compares..." is mostly just triads and depending on which version you go with (Sinead or Prince) you could probably pick it out without much trouble.

Do you know what the chord sequence in the Hits version is? the one after each line, i.e "since u took ur love away..*here*". I can't seem to piece it together.

Yeah Prince's version is definitely more harmonically sophisticated. Lemme sit down with it and I'll get back to you on that!

MrSquiggle said:

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's:

C, Dm, Em, Dm/F, C/G, G, C

See how that sounds and lemme know!

guitarslinger44 said:

Hey that's perfect! Can I send that to OLGA?