Good evening, P9uma, and ...
Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.
Dark art, indeed. Here's a tip for you ... You don't have to bar all the strings, especially when beginning. Use a fingering for the top four strings for an 'F' chord when playing those tunes. To practise barred chords, go up to the eighth fret and get 'em right there (it's a 'C' chord, by the way...), then, once you're happy with that, move down a fret, progressively, till you get back to 'F'.
I learned on an unplayable 'cheese-wire' Russian 'Spanish' guitar, using the Mickey Baker book. From that experience, I learned to play mostly three- or four-string chords, instead of full barres. Just a tip, then; don't feel that you have to play all six strings all the time. T'ain't so.