One Piece At A Time chords by Johnny Cash

Chords with lyrics

• Capo on 1st

Tuning: Standard (E MajorE A augmentedA D MajorD G+G BB E MajorE)

Key: E MajorE

Difficulty: Novice


Intro:
E MajorE     A augmentedA   BB
B     E MajorE   E MajorE


Verse 1:
E MajorE
Well I left Kentucky back in '49
      A augmentedA
And went to Detroit working on assembly line
  B7B7                      E MajorE
The first year they had me putting wheels on Cadillac's

Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by
  A augmentedA
And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry
     B7B7                   E MajorE
'Cause I always wanted me one that was long and black

Verse 2:

One day I devised myself a plan
      A augmentedA
That should be the envy of most any man
  B7B7                    E MajorE
I'd sneak it outta there in a lunch box in my hand

Now getting caught meant getting fired
   A augmentedA
But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired
  B7B7                   E MajorE
I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand


Chorus:
                   A augmentedA
I'd get it one piece at a time and it wouldn't cost me a dime
    B7B7                  E MajorE
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
                     A augmentedA
I'm gonna ride around in style I'm gonna drive everybody wild
    B7B7               E MajorE
'Cause I'll have the only one there is around

Verse 3:

So the very next day when I punched in
    A augmentedA
With my big lunch box and with help from my friends
 B7B7                   E MajorE
I left that day with a lunch-box full of gears

I've never considered myself a thief
  A augmentedA
But GM wouldn't miss just one little piece
 B7B7                    E MajorE
Especially if I strung it out over several years


Verse 4:

The first day I got me a fuel pump
    A augmentedA
And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk
   B7B7                 E MajorE
Then I got me a transmission and all the chrome

The little things I could get in my big lunch box
   A augmentedA
Like nuts and bolts and all four shocks
B7B7                         E MajorE
But the big stuff we snuck out in my buddy's mobile home


Verse 5:

Now up to now my plan went alright
    A augmentedA
Till we tried to put it all together one night
  B7B7                          E MajorE
And that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong

The transmission was a '53
    A augmentedA
And the motor turned out to be a '73
  B7B7                          E MajorE
And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone


Verse 6:

So we drilled it out so that it would fit
         A augmentedA
And with a little bit of help from an adapter kit
  B7B7                 E MajorE
We had that engine running just like a song

Now the headlights they was another sight
    A augmentedA
We had two on the left and one on the right
  B7B7                         E MajorE
But when we pulled out the switch all three of 'em come on


Verse 7:

The back end looked kind of funny too
    A augmentedA
But we put it together and when we got through
   B7B7                        E MajorE
Well that's when we noticed that we only had one tail fin

About that time my wife walked out
      A augmentedA
And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts
    B7B7                      E MajorE
But she opened the door and said honey take me for a spin


Verse 8:

So we drove uptown just to get the tags
   A augmentedA
And I headed her right on down main drag
    B7B7                 E MajorE
I could hear everybody laughing for blocks around

But up there at the courthouse they didn't laugh
     A augmentedA
Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
     B7B7                    E MajorE
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds


Chorus:
                  A augmentedA
I got it one piece at a time and it wouldn't cost me a dime
   B7B7                  E MajorE
You'd know it's me when I come through your town
                     A augmentedA
I'm gonna ride around in style I'm gonna drive everybody wild
      B7B7             E MajorE
'Cause I'll have the only one there is around


Ourtro Spoken:
E MajorE
Ah yeah Red Rider this is the Cottonmouth
E MajorE
In the Psychobilly Cadillac come on
E MajorE
Oh this is the Cottonmouth and negatory
E MajorE
On the cost of this machine there Red Rider
E MajorE
You might say I went right up to the factory and picked it up
E MajorE
It's cheaper that way...
E MajorE
Ah what model it is?

E MajorE                A augmentedA
Well it's a '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56
B7B7         E MajorE
'57 '58' 59' Automobile
              A augmentedA
It's a '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '67
B7B7         E MajorE
'68, '69, '70 Automobile

Other versions of One Piece At A Time

Alternative guitar chords and tabs for One too many mornings by Johnny Cash