Strumming pattern:

e|——-3——-3—————3——-3——-3—————2—||
B|——-3——-3——-1——-3——-3——-3——-2——-1—||
G|——-0——-0——-0——-0——-0——-0——-0——-2—||
D|——-0——-0——-2——-0——-0——-0——-2—0——-||
A|——-2——-2—3—3——-2——-2——-2—0—————||
E|—3—3—3—3———–3—3—3—3—3—3——————-||

The ‘s represent thumb strokes that make up the bass line.
This pattern is kept throughout the song.

(Verse 1)
Dear Abby, Dear Abby, my feet are too long
My hair’s falling out and my rights are all wrong
My friends they all tell me that I’ve no friends at all
Won’t you write me a letter, won’t you give me a call?
Siiiiigned Bewildered

Bewildered, Bewildered, you have no complaint
You are what you are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up buster and listen up good
Stop wishin’ for bad luck and knockin’ on wood

(Verse 2)
Dear Abby, Dear Abby, my fountain pen leaks
My wife hollers at me and my kids are all freaks
Every side I get up on is the wrong side of bed
If it weren’t so expensive I’d wish I were dead
Siiiiigned Unhappy

Unhappy, Unhappy, you have no complaint
You are what you are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up buster and listen up good
Stop wishin’ for bad luck and knockin’ on wood

(Verse 3)
Dear Abby, Dear Abby, you won’t believe this
But my stomach makes noises whenever I kiss
My girlfriend tells me it’s all in my head
But my stomach tells me to write you instead
Siiiiigned Noisemaker

Noisemaker, Noisemaker, you have no complaint
You are what you are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up buster and listen up good
Stop wishin’ for bad luck and knockin’ on wood

(Verse 4)
Dear Abby, Dear Abby, well I never thought
That me and my girlfriend would ever get caught
We were sittin’ in the back seat just shootin’ the breeze
With her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees
Siiiiigned Just Married

Just Married, Just Married, you have no complaint
You are what you are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up buster and listen up good
Stop wishin’ for bad luck and knockin’ on wood
Siiiiigned Dear Abbby

#

#
# Chords by Sam Booker (booker@elvice.stortek.com)
#

#
It stated out
When she was small
She was premature

She wasn’t nothing at all
Two pounds six ounces

A little pumpkin seed

But she got more love

Than you ever gonna need

She got big fat love

She got big fat love

She don’t eat enough

To keep her alive

When she bends over

She’s a quarter to five

Skinny little thing

But she ain’t afraid

To dance the watusi

On a razorblade

She got big fat love

She got big fat love


#
Tiny little hands

Tiny little nose

Tiny little footsteps

Wherever she goes

Little bit don’t leave

No bathtub ring

You pull the plug

She’s down the drain

She got big fat love

Big fat love

She got big fat love

#
Bigger than me

Bigger than you

Bigger than the hippo

Down at the zoo

Thin is in

Stout is out

Big fat love

Is what I’m talking about

She got big fat love

She got big fat love

Big fat love

She got big fat love

#

John Prine – A
Capo at 2nd Fret & Play as written

You’ve got a life somewhere without me
I’ve gone on without you
It hasn’t been easy getting used to being lonely
And tonight is an all night blue
And I wonder how you look
And who looks at you in your nightgown
I can almost feel your body
Your warm and loving body when I lay down

Chorus
It’s an all night blue, remembering you
It’s an all night blue, wondering who’s loving you
…all night

G…
Well it hurts me to see
That you’re happy without me, cause I still need you
I just drank up my heart, set it empty on the table
‘Cause I ain’t got nothing better to do
Still I wonder how you look
Who looks at you every morning
I can still feel your warm breath
You kissing me on my chest, I’m just dreaming

Repeat Chorus Break Repeat Chorus

John Prine ……Jesus The Missing Years

Intro: – Play this pattern thoughout song
[(C)] [(F)] [(G)] [(C)]
It was raining. It was cold
West Bethlehem was no place for a twelve year old
So he packed his bags and he headed out
To find out what the world’s about
He went to France. He went to Spain
He found love. He found pain.
He found stores so he started to shop
But he had no money so he got in trouble with a cop

Kids in trouble with the cops
So he cut his hair and moved to Rome
It was there he met his Irish bride
And they rented a flat on the lower east side of Rome…
Italy that is
Music publishers, book binders, Bible belters, swimming pools,
orgies and lots of pretty Italian chicks.

(C)Charley bought some popcorn
B(F)illy bought a car
So(G)meone almost bought the farm
But they didn’t go that f(C)ar
Things shut down at midnight
(F)At least around here they do
C(G)ause we all reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo.

Wine was flowing so were beers
So Jesus found his missing years
He went to a dance and said “This don’t move me”
He hiked up his pants and he went to a movie
On his thirteenth birthday he saw “Rebel without a Cause”
He went straight on home and invented Santa Claus
Who gave him a gift and he responded in kind
He gave the gift of love and went out of his mind

You see him and the wife wasn’t getting along
So he took out his guitar and he wrote a song
Called “The Dove of Love Fell Off the Perch”
But he couldn’t get divorced in the Catholic Church
At least not back then anyhow
Jesus was a good guy he didn’t need this st
So he took a pill with a Coca-Cola and he swallowed it.
He discovered the Beatles
And he recorded with the Stones
Once He even opened up a three-way package for old George Jones

(C)Charley bought some popcorn
B(F)illy bought a car
So(G)meone almost bought the farm
But they didn’t go that f(C)ar
Things shut down at midnight
(F)At least around here they do
C(G)ause we all reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo.

The years passed by like sweet little days
With babies crying pork chops and beaujolais
When he woke up he was seventeen
The world was angry. The world was mean.
Why the man down the street and the kid on the stoop
All agreed that life stank. All the world smelled like poop
Baby poop that is ..the worst kind

So he grew his hair long and thew away his comb
And headed back to Jerusalem to find Mom, Dad and home
But when he got there the cupboard was bare
Except for an old black man with a fishing rod
He said “Whatcha gonna be when you grow up?”
Jesus said “God”
Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?
I’m a human corkscrew and all my wine is blood
They’re gonna kill me Mama. They don’t like me Bud.

So Jesus went to Heaven and he went there awful quick
All them people killed him and he wasn’t even sick
So come and gather around me my contemporary peers
And I’ll tell you all the story of
Jesus…The Missing Years

(C)Charley bought some popcorn
B(F)illy bought a car
So(G)meone almost bought the farm
But they didn’t go that f(C)ar
Things shut down at midnight
(F)At least around here they do
C(G)ause we all reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo.
We all (G)reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo. (G) (C)

John Prine – A (Capo 2)

My heart”s in the ice house come hill or come valley
Like a long ago Sunday when I walked thru the alley
On a cold winter”s morning to a church house
Just to shovel some snow

I heard sirens on the train track, howl naked gettin” nuder

An altar boy”s been hit by a local commuter

Just from walking with his back turned to the train

That was coming so slow

Chorus
You can gaze out the window, get mad and get madder
Throw your hands in the air, say what does it matter
But, it don”t do no good to get angry, so help me I know
For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter
You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there
Wrapped up in a trap of your very own chain of sorrow

I been brought down to zero, pulled out and put back there
I sat on a park bench, kissed the girl with the black hair
And my head shouted down to my heart you better look out below
Hey, it ain”t such a long drop, don”t stammer, don”t stutter
From the diamonds in the sidewalk to the dirt in the gutter
And you carry those bruises to remind you wherever you go

Chorus

Repeat 1st verse and Chorus

QUIT HOLLERIN” AT ME
John Prine

I don”t want your big french fry, I don”t want your car

I don”t want to buy no soap, from no washed up movie star
You are so much louder, than the show I wanna hear
With your sugarless gum, gee but I”m dumb, non-alcoholic beer
It”s enough to make a grown man blow up his own TV
Quit hollerin” at me, quit hollerin” at me

I heard you the first time, I heard myself say

Seems like the little woman, is getting bigger every day
You don”t have to tell the neighbors, a little silence ain”t no sin
They already think my name is, where in the hell you been
Louder, louder, louder, louder, louder, constantly
Quit hollerin” at me, quit hollerin” at me

Refrain
Whoa ooh, whoa ooh, whoa ooh, sweet serenity
Whoa ooh, whoa ooh, whoa ooh, quit hollerin” at me

Quit hollerin” at me

Ain”t it great at the end of the day, when there ain”t no sound around

Just me and the fence post, staring each other down
Nothing but a big bunch of nothing, driving me insane
Cause there ain”t no voice that”s louder, than the one inside my brain
Hey, you go on, go on and let me be, quit hollerin” at me

Quit hollerin” at me

Repeat Refrain & Fade

#
#
#
Well I know a guy that’s got a lot to lose,
He’s a pretty nice fella, kinda confused.
He’s got muscles in his head ain’t never been used,
He thinks he owns half of this town.

Well he starts drinkin’ heavy, gets a big red nose,
Then he fights with his lady, until it shows.
He takes her out to dinner, and buys her new clothes,
And that’s the way that the world goes ‘round.

That’s the way that the world goes ‘round,
You’re up one day, the next you’re down,
It’s half inch of water, but you think you’re gonna drown,
That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.

I was sittin’ in the bathtub, a-countin’ my toes,
When the radiator broke, the water all froze.
I got stuck in the ice, without my clothes,
Naked as the eyes of a clown.

I was crying those ice cubes, hoping I’d croak,
When the sun came through the window, the ice all broke.
I stood up and laughed; I thought it was a joke,
That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.

Did you ever stand and shiver
While you were staring at a river?

That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.(repeat…)

That’s the way that the world goes ‘round,
That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.
#
# Submitted to the ftp.nevada.edu:/pub/guitar archives
# by Steve Putz
# 7 September 1992