Play guitar with Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell's character in Stranger Than Fiction is an IRS auditor whose whole world is numbers. I don't identify with this. Notice, I avoided a profession in numbers for the far-less-lucrative field of words.
But Will's Harold Crick (photo, left, courtesy of Sony Pictures) is also a wannabe guitar player, and with this, he and I are of one mind. For those who haven't seen the trailer for Stranger, the story is about how Harold starts hearing a voice that is narrating his life. That voice turns out to be a novelist, played by Emma Thompson, who, unbeknown to her, is writing a book about Harold. She thinks she's writing fiction. One of my favorite scenes is when Harold goes into a guitar shop looking for his ax and Thompson's voice-over says what each one would say about him. But the scene that interested me most was when Harold is in the apartment of Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and charms her by playing (I'd Go The) Whole Wide World, a song by Wreckless Eric (photo, right) that was covered by the Monkees (Thanks to Ross, below, for straightening me out on the history of this tune). Hmmmmm. At this point in the story, Harold had been playing his sea foam green Strat a few days, maybe a week. Is this a song he could pull off that quickly?
Being a beginning guitar player, I decided to investigate. First, I am not terribly familiar with the song, so I downloaded a recording from Napster. Then, I went looking for a chord chart, and plucked one off Jumbo Jimbo's Song Lyrics Archive. (I am well aware that a lot of chord charts, online and off, are not exact representations of what is played on a recording. In this case, the chart seems to match up with the recording fairly well, at least providing a framework in which to play along.)
One thing I've discovered since I started learning to play last year is a lot of pop songs are indeed three chords. Whole Wide World is actually a two chord song: E (top chart) and A (bottom). That makes things real easy. I wish I knew this song when I started playing. The verses are steady, played in somewhat muted 4/4 time with the chorus a bit more of a spirited strum. I'm still working on that chorus a little bit. I'm not the biggest fan of chord charts because I like to see rhythms written in musical notation to get precise clues on how to play them. That said, my wife, a fabulous piano player, will often say something like, "just get the feel of it." Anyway, long story short, yes, Whole Wide World is a song Harold probably could have easily picked up well enough to impress a Ana. I don't know if Will Ferrell plays guitar, but it probably wouldn't have been difficult for him to learn it for that scene. The way he played it even rang true, a little halting and pitching his voice too high. While a beginning guitarist may dream of moments like the Pete Townsend windmill pose Harold strikes in the guitar shop, this hesitant  take is how you wade into actually playing. That scene may be the most realistic thing about the movie.

Comments

[Mr. Vintage Guitar Collector]

great article, enjoyed reading it.

[Naomi Rouse-Kugel]

Thanks, Ross, for the CORRECT info. on the song "Whole Wide World" performed by Will Ferrell AND by "Wreckless Eric" in the movie "Stranger Than Fiction". Written by Eric Frank Goulden, available on Union Square Records, with rights owned by Stiff Records, Ltd.
I love the song - it really expressed the love being realized by Harold and Anna.

[JP]

Cool review! I used that pic for my own blog twist, and refer/link back to your piece as credit. Stop by anytime!

best,
JP
www.stratoblogster.blogspot.com

[Ross]

Nice article, but Whole Wide World was actually written by 'Wreckless Eric' Goulden in 1974, recorded and released on Stiff Records in 1977, and then covered by the re-formed Monkees on their Pool It album in 1987. The version they play in Stranger Than Fiction immediately following Ferrill's own version is the first and original recording of the song.