As a guitarist who loves to show who and what has influenced his style over the years, John Mayer surely isn’t hiding his love for that Motown sound!

In the song I Don’t Need no Doctor by Motown songwriters Valerie Simpson and Nick Ashford while made popular by Ray Charles (1966), he pays a reverence to this genre. It’s also from his live performance DVD in LA titled Where The Light Is. The intro that he does for Neon is a real nice. Now back to my post!

Many bands have attempted to play this great song like Humble Pie, New Riders of the Purple Sage or W.A.S.P. (remember them?). John Mayer’s interpretation of this song closely resembles that of John Scofield, which features guess guitarist Mr. Mayer. In Ray Charles adaptation, he has a more upbeat rhythm were as John Mayer’s is performed with a slower tempo with a swampy bluesy swagger.

In I Don’t Need No Doctor, which is a classic 12 bar blues song in the key of E, John hooks his distinctive chording in it. The trumpet player Brad Mason and saxophone player Bob Reynolds fill out the song rather fittingly.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXWKMwnWP4Q

Here are some neat chord inversions that John Mayer plays in this one. For this song, I will provide you with the chords in TAB form that I think he uses. Please be patient with this new TAB tables that I am using here folks. I’m just seeing how it comes up on some people’s screen. Please tell me if there is a problem viewing this post, thanx!

	C#m7b5	Dm9	Cadd#4	A7sus4	B7sus4
E	X	X	0	5	7
B	4	4	2	5	7
G	2	3	0	7	9
D	3	1	3	5	7
A	1	2	1	7	9
E	X	X	X	5	7

Keep on Jammin’