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Woman Downstairs

The Handsome Family

Text File

Verse 1:

Em         C         D         G
Chicago is where the woman downstairs

Am                 B7         Em
Starved herself to death last summer

(Pattern repeats throughout verses)

Her boyfriend Ted ate hotdogs and wept
With the grey rats out on the fire escape
In a thrift store chair I drank cases of beer
And dreamed of lying down on the L-tracks
The trains roared by under smoke grey skies
Lake Michigan rose and fell like a bird

Chorus:

             C    D                   G
And when the wind screamed up Ashland Avenue

    C                D       G
The corner bars were full by noon

        C            D                  G
And the old stewbums sliding down their stools

Am                  B7                Em
Ate boiled eggs and fed beer to their dogs


Verse 2:

The woman downstairs lost all her hair
And wore a beret in the laundry room
I borrowed her soap and bought her a coke
But she left it on the dryer
She died in June weighing 82
Her boyfriend went back to New York
The cops wandered through her dusty rooms
One of them stole her TV

Chorus

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Woman Downstairs

The Handsome Family