Blue Chair by Elvis Costello guitar tab (text):

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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



---------------------------------------------------------------------



[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