Transcription by: Ben Knowles <beknowles@vaxsar.vassar.edu>
Play
this capoed at the third fret to match the album version. The strumming pattern
is sort of a shuffle. It might take awhile to get all the lyrics right in one
time through, but keep at it. I love this song - Thanks Dar!
[intro:]
e-------------------------------------------------------3---
B----------3--------3---------------1--------1----------0---
G-------0--------0--------0------0--------0-------0-----0--- beginning
strumming... (G)
D----4--------4--------4------2--------2-------2--------0---
A-------------------------------------------------------2---
E----------------------------------------------------3------
[1:]
G
Bm
C D
There's a part of the country could drop off tomorrow in an earthquake
G
Bm
C D
Yeah it's out there on the cutting edge, the people move, the sidewalks shake
Em
Bm
C
D
And there's another part of the country, with a land that gently creaks and
thuds
Em
Bm
C D
Where the heavy snows make faucets leak in bathrooms with free-standing tubs
G
Bm
C D
They're in houses that are haunted, with the kids who lie awake and think about
Em
C
D G
All the generations past who used to use that dripping sink
[step down from G to Em]
[2:]
Em
Bm
C D
And sometimes one place wants to slip into the other just to see what it's
Em
Bm
C D
Like to trade its demons for the restless ghost of Mrs. Ogilvey
G
Bm
C D
She used to pick the mint from her front yard to dress the Sunday pork
G
Bm C G
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York
[1]
It wants to have a family business in sheet metal or power tools
It wants to have a diner where the coffee tastes like diesel fuel and it
Wants to find the glory of a town they say has hit the skids and it
Wants to have a snow day that will turn its parents into kids
And it's embarassed, but it's lusting after a SUNY student with mousy-brown hair
who is
Taking out the compost, making coffee in long underwear
[step down]
[2]
Southern California says to save a place, "I'll meet you there" and it
Tried to pack up its Miata, all it could fit was a prayer
Sometimes the stakes are bogus, sometimes the fast lane hits a fork, sometimes
Southern California wants to be western New York
[step down]
Em
Bm
C D
Tempe, Arizona thinks the Everglades are greener and wetter and
Em
Bm
C
D
Washington, D.C. thinks Atlanta integrated better but I
G
Bm
C D
Think that southern California has more pain than we can say cause it
Em
C
D [hit that 5th fret with the pinky!]
Wants to travel back in time, but it just can't leave L.A.-ay-ay-ay
[1]
But now I hear they've got a theme park planned, designed to make you gasp and
say:
Oh, I bet that crumbling mill town was a booming mill town in its day and the
Old investers scoff at this, but the young ones hope they'll take a chance and
they
Promise it will make more dough than Mickey Mouse in northern France and the
Planners got an opening day, the town historian will host and the
Waitresses look like waitresses who want to leave for the west coast
[step down]
[2]
And they'll have putterning on rainy weekends, autumn days that make you feel
sad,
They'll have hundred-year-old plumbing and the family you never had and a
Hudson River clean-up concert and a bundle-bearing stork and I
Hear they've got a menu planned, it's tres western New York
[ending:]
e------------------------------------------------------------------3-------||
B----3--------3--------1-------1--------0--------0-----------------0-------||
G-------0--------0--------0-------0--------0--------0-----0--------0-------||
D----------0--------0--------2-------2--------0--------0-----------0-------||
A------------------------------------------------------------2-----2-------||
E---------------------------------------------------------------3--3-------||
western New Yooooork......
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.
Words and music copyright © 1996 Burning Field Music
(administered by Bug Music).