Estelle chords by Dan Bern

Chords with lyrics

The lyrics just kinda flow, nearly conversationally. You'll have to listen to the recording a few times,
to get a good feel for how they go.

Lyrics from The Dan Bern Lyrics Archive


G+G
I was painting a still life this morning
   A minorAm
Of a throat lozenge sitting on a copy
Of Tropic of Cancer
  C majorC
The only thing weird about it
     D MajorD
Is that a year ago,
    G+G
I never thought I'd paint anything again
 G+G
I decided I wasn't ever gonna paint again
     A minorAm
It didn't bother me too much
Warhol's dead,
   C majorC
David Hockney's still alive
    D MajorD        G+G
I don't need to paint

     G+G
I painted over ten thousand paintings
     A minorAm
Sad ones, funny ones, dark ones, and light ones
     C majorC
I've done haystacks
       D MajorD
And rich old ladies by their pools
    G+G
Wearing nothing but a scarf
       G+G
I've painted everything there was to paint
      A minorAm
Now it was time to sit back
              C majorC
Give interviews, get on the internet
         D MajorD
Hang out at club med
            G+G
Take stock of what I've done
          G+G
You know, the best friend I ever had was a dog
  A minorAm
It sounds like a cliche unless it's happened to you
   C majorC             D MajorD            G+G
Some days that dog was the only reason I even got out of bed
       G+G
That dog went everywhere with me
           A minorAm
And then I heard the crack addicts
Were stealin' dogs and selling them for animal research
      C majorC
It sounded like an urban myth to me
D MajorD
Like the mouse in the Coke bottle
       G+G
But I started leavin' her at home after that
     G+G
You know, Paula was my wife for a while
        A minorAm
She ran off to Paris with the great grandson of Van Gogh
C majorC          D MajorD            G+G
A augmentedA cartoonist who did fashion graphics for Le Monde
   G+G
When Paula left she took my dog
    A minorAm
I never saw her again
Except in the court during the custody battle
C majorC         D MajorD
She won and got to keep the dog
           G+G
And I didn't speak to anyone for months

     G+G
You know sometimes it feels
       B minorBm
Like there's so much that you need
C majorC       B minorBm       G+G
Sometimes the world is upside down
G+G
Sometimes it feels
     B minorBm
Like the only thing you need
  C majorC         B minorBm            A minorAm   C majorC  G+G
Is holdin' someone's hand as you walk through town


G+G
I started hanging around with Dino
            A minorAm
He used to run a poker game back east
       C majorC           D MajorD
Now he sells cappuccino to his old pals
   G+G
Tommy Chicago and Jimmy the Wig and Ugly Rose


       G+G
You know the best person I ever knew
             A minorAm
Was a Mormon woman named Estelle
She still calls me drunk every few months
  C majorC               D MajorD
And asks me stuff I don't want to talk about
     G+G
You can't talk to her very long unless you're drunk yourself
      G+G      A minorAm   C majorC   D MajorD   G+G
Then we go all night

     G+G
She says, "Why baby, why baby, why baby, why
     A minorAm
Have you turned your back on love?
    C majorC
You had so many chances
D MajorD              G+G
Why have you let 'em all go by?"

     G+G
Well, one morning I was sitting in front of Dino's place
       A minorAm
with Jake the Shears, a guy from Philly
Who gives free mohawks
C majorC
There were a couple of young painters
   D MajorD
I was hopin' to come by
      G+G
So I could give 'em some advice
      G+G
Yeah, I was sittin' there updating my list of enemies
     A minorAm
When this girl walks in
And the universe kind of stops
C majorC                  D MajorD
Turned out she drank the same tea as me
       G+G
It don't take more than that to start a conversation sometimes
       G+G
She believed collage was the greatest of all the arts
    A minorAm
And was busy pasting pictures of horses
        C majorC
Next to ads for laundry soap
         D MajorD
Next to Mohammed Ali
     G+G
She had a turquoise in her ear
                    G+G
And said Rachmaninoff was always in her head
                        A minorAm
Later that day I was trying to describe her to Jimmy the Wig
      C majorC
I couldn't find any words
   D MajorD            G+G
And I realized I'd started to sketch her chin
  G+G
Somehow it didn't look right
            A minorAm
I scratched it out and tried it again
      C majorC
I filled an entire pad
      D MajorD            G+G
I threw it away, I never even came close

    G+G
For six days I sat at Dino's place
  A minorAm
The rain wouldn't quit and no one came in
C majorC               D MajorD
Finally on the seventh day it cleared
      G+G
And in she walked
        G+G
I asked her to sit with me
And I bought her a cup of tea
   A minorAm
And I asked her to model for me sometime
   C majorC
That afternoon I was at a canvas
             D MajorD
She was wearing a yellow dress
 G+G
I swore if she let me, I'd get it right

       G+G
I've painted over ten thousand paintings
A minorAm
Sad ones, funny ones, dark ones, and light ones
C majorC                D MajorD
But sitting there, it was like I couldn't even
       G+G
Write my own name
  G+G
I apologized and said, "It's been a few months
      A minorAm
If you have patience, I'll get the hang of it again"
    C majorC         D MajorD            G+G
In the next few weeks, I painted her hundreds of times
       G+G
If I get the nose right, the chin's too long
       A minorAm
If I get 'em both right, the face is too thin
      C majorC      D MajorD
But I keep after it and one day
       G+G
I get it all right


[harmonica solo]
G+G A minorAm C majorC D MajorD G+G
G MajorG A minorAm C majorC D MajorD G+G

        G+G
I painted a still life this morning
   A minorAm
Of a throat lozenge
sitting on a copy of Tropic of Cancer
  C majorC
The only thing that's funny
   D MajorD
Is I never thought
          G+G
I'd paint anything again
     G+G
I think I might go visit Estelle
      A minorAm
Those Utah mountains are good for the soul
       C majorC
I'll bring my brushes
       D MajorD
And some Jack Daniels
            G+G
And we can make up for lost time

     G+G
She said, "Why baby, why baby, why baby why?
A minorAm
Have you turned your back on love
    C majorC
You had so many chances
  D MajorD           G+G
Why do you let 'em all go by?
G+G              A minorAm
Why baby, why baby, why baby why?
Have you turned your back on love
    C majorC
You had so many chances
D MajorD             G+G
Why do you let 'em all go by?"

G+G                B minorBm
Sometimes it seems like there's so much that you need
C majorC       B minorBm       G+G
Sometimes the world is upside down
G+G              B minorBm
Sometimes it seems like the only thing you need
C majorC          B minorBm            A minorAm  C majorC  G+G