Union of the snake

Union Of The Snake Tab by Duran Duran,  
Duran Duran - Union Of The Snake (1983) 
 
 
 
Tuning: Standard 
 
 
The first single from the band's third album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger. The song 
features one of the band's catchier and exotic riffs, which I haven't been able to 
ind online, so I came up with it myself. A lot of the song is complicated since the 
guitar parts played live are more audible and may actually be better that the album 
version, where it's hard to hear a lot of what is being played. Either way, the song 
is easy to get a hold of with the main riff and some barre chords to go with it. 
 
Here is the main riff played at the beginning... 
 
e|--8--8--8--8----8--8----8--8--8--8----8--8---------------------------------| 
B|--7--7--7--7----7--7----7--7--7--7----7--7---------------------------------| 
G|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
D|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 
 
The band's bassist, John Taylor, does a similar bass run like below each time 
after the main riff. However, Andy Taylor does this live after the riff as well, 
which adds more power to the song. The verses consist of the above riff and the 
following E string run over and over. Let the F# chord echo as well. 
 
    A    G#5 G5 F#5 
e|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
B|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
G|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
D|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
A|--7--7--6--5--4------------------------------------------------------------| 
E|--5--5--4--3--2------------------------------------------------------------| 
 
 
The Pre-Chorus just consists of running up lower along the E string, though only 
the later part of this might be actually played on the album version. 
 
    G5                   F#5                   E   
e|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
B|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
G|----------------------------------------1--1----1--1--1----1--1----1--1----| 
D|----------------------------------------2--2----2--2--2----2--2----2--2----| 
A|--5--5----5--5--5----4--4----4--4--4----2--2----2--2--2----2--2----2--2----| 
E|--3--3----3--3--3----2--2----2--2--2----0--0----0--0--0----0--0----0--0----| 
 
 
During the Chorus, Andy once again kicks in the main riff. Live, he will throw 
in the F# and G chords once each time to go with the song instead of the usual 
E string run. On the album you can hardly hear anything he does during parts of 
the Chorus. 
 
e|--8--8--8--8----8--8----8--8--8--8----8--8---------------------------------| 
B|--7--7--7--7----x--7----7--7--7--7----x--7---------------------------------| 
G|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
D|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 
   F#5 - G5 
e|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
B|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
G|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
D|--4----5-------------------------------------------------------------------| 
A|--4----5-------------------------------------------------------------------| 
E|--2----3-------------------------------------------------------------------| 
 
 
 
After all this, the song basically just repeats itself. On the album, Andy goes 
into some other riffs and notes during the break in the middle. Live, however, he 
just repeats what he usually plays during the verses for nearly all of it. Other 
than that, these riffs make up practically the entire song. It should be easy to 
strum the pre-Chorus and Chorus chords more than necessary if playing the song on 
acoustic or just for overall sound too.