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Blue Chair

Elvis Costello

Text File

#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------##
From: schnitzi@east.isx.com (Mark J. Schnitzius)

Blue Chair
from Blood and Chocolate
tabbed by Mark Schnitzius (schnitzi@east.isx.com)
corrections below by kevinmoore@cruz.com (Kevin Moore)
	and Stu Shea 

Here's my best stab at this song.  Parts of it seem to be not quite
right (especially the part where Elvis is stating whose turn it is
to do what).  Improvements are more than welcome.   --Mark

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[Intro stays on D]

D                        G         D
 Now it's just you and me, my blue friend
D
 And you say that it's you that she's thinking of
G          F#7
 And our affair must end
D
 But if it's you that she's thinking of
G                              F#7
 I think my broken heart might mend

         G          F#m      Em           D
Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
G            A       D          G
Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
G            F#m     Em         D
Your turn to cry and my turn to sink
G                Em
 Down in the Blue Chair
G     A           D
 Down in the Blue Chair

Now I've made up my mind
I've made my mistake
And I know that she cries for you
When she's barely awake
Well she's going to bend your mind
Well I hope it don't break

[Repeat chorus]

                 Em
Down in the Blue Chair
       F#m       G
We can watch our troubles rise
     F#m            Em
Like smoke into the air
          A         D
And drift up to the ceiling
                 Em
Down in the Blue Chair
        F#m              G        F#m
You can feel just like a boy or a man
         Em             A             D
And next minute you can find yourself kneeling
                 F#m
Down in the Blue Chair
        G#m         A          G#m
They're boasting of loving the daylights
      F#m        G#m          Bm
right out of her in the small hours
                 Em
Down in the Blue Chair
    F#m           G             F#m
You say that your love lasts forever
     Em           G          A     A/G  A/F#     A/E
when you know the night just hours      uh ho ho ho ho ho

And still I want her right now
Not any minute, hour or day
And wherever she is tonight
I want her anyway
I suppose she never said to you,
You were just in the way

         G          F#m      Em           D
Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
G            A       D          G
Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
G            F#m     Em         D
Your turn to cry and my turn to sink
G                Em
 Down in the Blue Chair
G     A           D
 Down in the Blue Chair
G                Bm
 Down in the Blue Chair
Bb    A           D   [N.C.]
 Down in the Blue Chair

G     A           D
 Down in the Blue Chair
G     A           D
 Down in the Blue Chair
G     A           B7
 Down in the Blue Chair

Em    F#m
  Down in the blue
G        Bm
 Blue becomes you
G     A           D
 Down in the Blue Chair

From: kevinmoore@cruz.com (Kevin Moore)

This is definitely a challenging one:

Here's what I got :

>         G                   F#m7      C/E              D
>Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
>G                    A        A# aug       Bmi
>Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
>G                  F#m7     C/E          D
>Your turn to cry and my turn to sink ...

C/E would just be a normal C chord with an open E in the bass.
(EC uses C/E a lot)

The A# augmented chord is weird and has something else in it,
possible an open E? My best guess for a fingering would be:

E string: deadened
A string: 1st finger on 1st fret
D string: 4th finger on 4th fret
G string: 2nd finger on 3rd  fret
B string: 3rd finger on 3rd fret
E string: Open

I don't know, though-I've never seen Elvis live-sigh-I have a laser disc of
The Juliet Letters, but of course he doesn't play guitar on that one.

The bridge is also strange-you have the right bassline: E F# G F# E (B) A D,
but I think the chord just stays on Emi, although some instrument other
than the guitar keeps hinting at D#'s

[The early 70's dylan inflections are beautiful in this section]

The second part of the bridge (boasting of loving the daylights...)
sounds like the first part transposed up a whole step, so
F#mi, F#mi/G#, F#mi/A, etc.

Then back to the Emi

and then when he says "you know the night just hours" [what does he
mean by that?] the bass goes: E and then in 8th notes: F# G F# G, still
all against some kind of Emi. I'm just playing the bass line and
plucking the G B and E strings open for the E mi
On the F#mi part, I'm barring the 2nd fret to get the 3 highest
strings and then playing the bassline on the low string.

Your descending bassline coming down against the A chord is right, as
is the rest of the transcription.

I hope my carriage returns aren't coming out weird. Let me know.

Now I've got to go buy the CD to hear it better. I was going to
wait for the box set reissues to get to this album.

Does anyone know when the next box set is due to be released?

From: Stu Shea 

On Mon, 22 Aug 1994, Mark J. Schnitzius wrote:

>
> Here's my best stab at this song.  Parts of it seem to be not quite
> right (especially the part where Elvis is stating whose turn it is
> to do what).  Improvements are more than welcome.   --Mark

Looks good to me except that the chorus might be a bit different:
>
>          G          F#m      Em           D
> Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
> G            A       D          G
> Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
> G            F#m     Em         D
> Your turn to cry and my turn to sink
> G                Em

         G           F#m       Em          D
Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
  G           A      Bbm         Bm
Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
  G           F#m     C          Bm
Your turn to cry and my turn to sink

blah blah

Or something like that.

Stuart Shea