My Brother The Ape chords by They Might Be Giants

• Difficulty: Intermediate

Key: D

Intro:

D G A7

Verse 1:
N.C.  D
Well, I got the invitation

That you sent to everyone

And I told you family picnics weren't exactly my idea of fun
    G
You replied that everyone but me said they were going to come
     D
Which is how you talked me into going to the reunion
A                 G     N.C.
When you said everyone, you really meant it

Chorus:
        D
My brother the ape
        A/D
My brother the ape

Verse 2:
  D
I received the photos you sent

And I don't regret that I went

Or the sight of everybody stiffly posing under one tent
   G
But I don't feel I belong and I keep wanting to escape
   D
And I fail to see the likeness between me and my brother the ape

Hook:
Em
They all kept saying (they all kept saying)
G/D
How much we look alike (how much we look alike)
C       Em/B     A6
I don't think that we look alike at all (I don't think that we look alike at all)

Bridge:
          D         G
But I'll admit that I look more like a chimp
    D            G
Than I look like my cousin the shrimp
   D        G
Or my distant kin the lichens
    D      G
Or the snowy egret or the moss
   G
And I find it hard to recognize
   G#dim7
Some relatives of ours
     D/A
Like the rotifer, the sycamore
        A7
Iguanas and sea stars

Chorus:
N.C.      D
My brother the ape
         A/D
My brother the ape

Instrumental Break:
D
G
D

Hook:
Em      G/D
They say you don't get (they say you don't get)
C       Em/B
To choose your family (to choose your family)
Am       Em/G
But there's no other one to choose (but there's no other one to choose)

Bridge:
     G
So that's why I'm writing this now

And you can tell my sister the cow

That I meant to thank her for the gorgonzola

And I'll allow that I've been acting like a stranger

But you guys are all so strange
     D
Though I think of what I'm like

And I can see we're all the same
A                   G     N.C.
So this time next year, we'll meet at my place

Chorus:
        G
My brother the ape
        D7 G
My brother the ape