Famous Tracheotomies chords by Okkervil River

Tuning: Standard (E A D G B E)

Key: Em

Difficulty: Novice

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

Chorus 1:
     Bm       Em
And I was one and a half
     Am
I was my parents only kid
         Em      C
And they had lost two before that
 Bm      Em              C
And growing up, I always knew how close I'd come
                 D
Well, that must have been scary, Mom


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

Chorus 2:
       Bm     Em
But that was much later on
    Am                Em       C
In the year that he turned forty when his fanbase was all gone
    Bm          Em
And his health was so touch-and-go
      C
His girlfriend proposed
             D
But they broke up on a TV show

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

Poor thing

Chorus 3:
   Bm            Em
But Diana Ross helped with her bills
    Am               Em      C
Aretha Franklin tried her very best to help out Mary Wells
    Bm           Em
And Dionne Warwick did all she could do
           C
And Mary Wells, she pulled through
           D
For one more year or two

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

Chorus 4:
 Bm        Em
And Caitlin Thomas said
     Am
When she walked into St Vincent's
    Em        C
"Is the bloody man dead yet?"
Bm        Em               C
And later that day she got so drunk she was restrained
            D
And her husband slipped away

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

Chorus 5:
Bm              Em
And down that evening sun did sink
     Am              Em        C
Painting London and the river and that freaked-out future Kink
Bm              Em
Waterloo lit up for one sick kid
     C            D
And, at 23, he recorded a song about it

[Outro}
G D Am C