Famous Tracheotomies chords by Okkervil River

Chords with lyrics

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

Key: E minorEm

Difficulty: Novice

Verse 1:
G+G       D MajorD
When I had my tracheotomy
    A minorAm
I was blue and had stopped breathing
       E minorEm        C majorC
There was something wrong with me
G+G             D MajorD
Doctors cut through the cartilage and skin
     A minorAm
At the bottom of my throat
        C majorC      A minorAm     D MajorD
And then they snaked that trach tube in

Chorus 1:
     B minorBm       E minorEm
And I was one and a half
     A minorAm
I was my parents only kid
         E minorEm      C majorC
And they had lost two before that
 B minorBm      E minorEm              C majorC
And growing up, I always knew how close I'd come
                 D MajorD
Well, that must have been scary, Mom

Verse 2:
G+G           D MajorD
Gary Coleman, he was "Arnold" on TV
     A minorAm           E minorEm       C majorC
Well, I grew up watching him and Conrad Bain and Kimberly
G+G             D MajorD
It turns out that he had a trach scar too
      A minorAm
Where they cut into his throat
       C majorC      A minorAm    D MajorD
And then they threaded that tube through

Chorus 2:
       B minorBm     E minorEm
But that was much later on
    A minorAm                E minorEm       C majorC
In the year that he turned forty when his fanbase was all gone
    B minorBm          E minorEm
And his health was so touch-and-go
      C majorC
His girlfriend proposed
             D MajorD
But they broke up on a TV show

Verse 3:
G+G           D MajorD
Mary Wells, she was known as Motown's Queen
    A minorAm           E minorEm    C majorC
But laryngeal cancer left her unable to sing
G+G             D MajorD
They tried radiation, multiple surgeries
   A minorAm                 C majorC  A minorAm  D MajorD
But she didn't have insurance and lost almost everything

Poor thing

Chorus 3:
   B minorBm            E minorEm
But Diana Ross helped with her bills
    A minorAm               E minorEm      C majorC
Aretha Franklin tried her very best to help out Mary Wells
    B minorBm           E minorEm
And Dionne Warwick did all she could do
           C majorC
And Mary Wells, she pulled through
           D MajorD
For one more year or two

Verse 4:
G+G          D MajorD
Dylan Thomas looked completely pale and weak
   A minorAm           E minorEm     C majorC
On a trip to New York City to promote his poety
G+G                      D MajorD
Three straight days of drinking out in Greenwich and Chelsea
    A minorAm           C majorC     A minorAm      D MajorD
He was taken to the hospital, turned blue and not breathing

Chorus 4:
 B minorBm        E minorEm
And Caitlin Thomas said
     A minorAm
When she walked into St Vincent's
    E minorEm        C majorC
"Is the bloody man dead yet?"
B minorBm        E minorEm               C majorC
And later that day she got so drunk she was restrained
            D MajorD
And her husband slipped away

Verse 5:
G+G        D MajorD
Ray Davies had a tracheotomy
A minorAm                 E minorEm      C majorC
He was at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, aged thirteen
G+G        D MajorD
And during his long recovery
   A minorAm
Nurses put him in a wheelchair
      C majorC       A minorAm    D MajorD
And they'd wheel him out onto a balcony (on a balcony)

Chorus 5:
B minorBm              E minorEm
And down that evening sun did sink
     A minorAm              E minorEm        C majorC
Painting London and the river and that freaked-out future Kink
B minorBm              E minorEm
Waterloo lit up for one sick kid
     C majorC            D MajorD
And, at 23, he recorded a song about it

[Outro}
G+G D MajorD A minorAm C majorC