Scowling Crackhead Ian chords by Jeffrey Lewis

• Difficulty: Beginner 👶

Tuning: Standard (E A D G B E)

🎸 Intro:
F Am G D Dm Am
F Am G A G Dm Am



🎸 Verse:
F
Scowling crackhead Ian
Am
I can't forget your face
G                     Am
You were a foul human being
G        Am
Way back on St. Mark's Place
F

A white thug when we were both poor
F       Am
A life struggling for one quarter more
Am       G
In sixth grade that's what you'd mug me for
G        Dm                         Am
A switch blade pressed up to my jugular
Am   F
So I feared for my next
F
Safe streets were few
   Am
My nerves grew wrecked near the Second Avenue
Am     G                               Am         G
I soon learned how to steer clear of a crook or a crew
Dm
And now I'm still here
Dm               Am
And look, so are you

🎸 Verse:
F
Forever you've been crackhead Ian
F           Am
It was your kid nickname if we spoke it
Am          G            Am
You were an insane human being
G                Dm                       Am
Whether you ever did or didn't really smoke it
F Am G Gm G Am

🎸 Verse:
F
I'd know that tall thin bent-over stroll
Am
All sun burned and grim since ten or twelve years old
Am       G
I guess yesterday is gone
      Dm    G
Faces still intend our souls
Dm                                         Am
An I guess both our mom's places are still on rent control
F
I was that wick, small, sad, sag, punier guy
F          Am
You was as big, tall and bad back in junior high
G
No sight of someone's face has ever been scarier
Dm                                             Am
You'd come chase me from Street Fighter One or Space Harrier

🎸 Bridge:
F
Hello again, crackhead Ian
F       Am
I still can't forget your foul face
G               A
My fellow human being
G                              Dm             Am
I know we're both still planted on St. Mark's Place
Am              F
We've lived our poor lives in close parallel
F           Am
Within this four or five blocks we both know so well
Am            G                                  Am        G
You must have grew up near the former theater or old gross hotel
Am
I'm sure you're aware of me here, but oh I can't tell
F
It seems you never outgrew your little preteen rage
Am
I still see you look so mean though now we are middle-aged
Am    G
I was eavesdropping last year at you laughing to tell
Dm                            Am
About bashing some dude with a chair till he fell
F
I slipped fast by you talking fear and our eyes would touch
Am
Drifting past by new mornings that it all changed so much
G
I've never known your live story I'm sure it's rotten and tough
Dm                                                     Am
But how long before these roles for us have gotten old enough?
F
You must've had it so rough kid
Am
Well I wonder
Gm                          Am       G
Forged by a tiny portion of love or fortune
Am
Goes lightning or goes thunder

🎸 Verse:
F
You're a bad one crackhead Ian
Am
A sad son and sunburned pig
Am             G
But of all the best kids seen downtown in our pre-teens
Am
It's just you and me left I think
F
How long till you notice?
Am
How long until you shake my hand?
G                            Am
How long until we're old man neighbours?
G          Dm                  Am
Last tribesmen of the vanished plant

🎸 Outro:
F
We never even did exchange names
Am
You were an evil kid from Hades
Am      G
When we played these arcade games
G         Dm                Am
That made life great in the 80's
F
Me and Ian
Am
Me and Ian
G                                        Am
Ryding into the night of an east-village dream
G          Dm                          Am
with these games in the street and the head and...
F Am G Dm Am
F Am G Am
F Am G Am