MEGADETH - "Breadline" Tablature

Artist: Megadeth
Recording: "Risk" (c) 1999 Capitol Records, Inc.
Song: "Breadline" (CD track #5)

Transcribed by: james86


This is the most commercial song off the "Risk" album, but it
sounds good and is fun to play. The lyrics are also cool.
The opening riff to this song won me over.

One neat thing about the CD is that is comes with a QuickTime
show for PC/Mac that gives some insight into the album.
Apparently they immersed themselved in a bunch of 70's and 80's
music before writing. Even disco! And it shows... each song
is quite different, but you can almost hear one 70s/80s band in
each song. The influences are subtle of course, being Megadeth.

Everything is transcribed here except the solo. It didn't catch
my fancy so I didn't bother going note for note. It's pretty
slow and easy enough to toy with while listening to the CD.

o-------o


This cool picked section is what inspired me to buy the album
and then to figure out this song. For some reason it took
forever to get this right. I don't know if it was the guitar
effects or my tin ear that was hampering me. Anyway, this is it.
It has some odd timing but its easy to play. Kudos to Dave M.
for coming up with such a cool and unique intro piece.
You can start by holding an E, but you can loosen it up.

E-------------|----------------|--------------|-----------------|
B-------------|----------------|--------------|-----------------|
G-----2-----1-|----1-----------|-----0--------|-----0---2-0-----|
D---2-----2---|-2~---2~--4-2---|---2-----2-4~-|---2---2-----2-0-|
A-------------|--------------2-|--------------|-----------------|
E-0-----0-----|----------------|-0-----0------|-0---------------|
(Repeat 4x)



I think this is what's called the bridge. It leads to the chorus.
Pretty boring part but sounds good, and requires fast hands
to get in position to play the root notes in time and cleanly.

E G A C E G A
E----------------------------||----------------------------------
B----------------------------||----------------------------------
G-------------------2------5-||--------------2-------------------
D-----2------5----2------5---||-----2-----5--2-------------------
A---2------5----0------3-----||---2-----5----0-------------------
E-0------3-------------------||-0-----3--------------------------
(Repeat 3x)



Chorus. Lots of strumming going on here but not detailed in the
tab. Interestingly this part sounds pretty darn fruity for
Megadeth when played on an acoustic. Buy hey, polished musicians
use classic chord progressions right?

E B A A E A E D A A E E
E-----0---------------------------------4---4-----0--------------
B-----0-------------------5-5-5-5-3-----5---5-----0--------------
G-----x------4-----2------6-4-6-4-2-2---6---4-----x--------------
D-2---2------4-----2------7-6-7-6-4-2---7---6---2-2--------------
A-2----------2-----0----------------0-----------2----------------
E-0---------------------------------------------0----------------



This is the little riff after the chorus. It may take a couple
practice tries to get the bends to sound just right and clean.
Bending up 2 or 3 frets accurately is not too hard, but nailing
two different bends back to back is a slight challenge. (I just
wish he had varied the riff a bit throughout the song. It sounds
too commercial to hear the exact same catch phrase repeated.)

E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G------9-11-11b3-11b2-9~-----------------------------------------
D--/11-----------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

(I wasn't sure of the tab punctuation here... the bends should be
up 3 half-steps, then up 2 half-steps.)