It Is What It Is chords by Vic Chesnutt

Verse:
D         A
I am a monster

             D
Like Quasimodo

                          G
Or Caliban the natural man

                     A           D
Giving wild ripostes to my reflection

G                        A D
One ugly morning

A        G
In a rage

                    A
Father threw an apple

  G                D
Into my carapace

D         A
And like the invisible man

                            D
Directing traffic

               G
I'd be ineffective

A                       D
No matter how enthusiastic

G                        A D
Amid the masses' frenzy

A        G
Participation

                A
In this massive

D         A          D
Separation

Bb                    A
Appearance is everything

D
Nothing is how it seems

         Bb        A      G
And civilized society

                 D
Is calm civility

G                       D
I'm the phantom of the opera

A                            D
Singing beauty and at ease

 G                     F#m
Or Henry Darger's

                   A
Autobiography

Verse:

                    D            A         G
And that is curt clues to my essence

D            A       G
Planned obsolescence

Bb                    A
Appearance is everything

D
Nothing is how it seems

         Bb                   A
In a market economy

G              D
It's called marketing

                           D        A       G
And not exactly clawing my way to glory

D            A       G
Nor whimpering in the wind

D               A
But once positively

D
I'm teetering on the brink

                        A
Of an all out breakthrough

Verse:

         G
But sometimes clear headed
Sometimes a doofus

        G
Sometimes very cordial
And sometimes aloof

            D
I am syrupy optimistic one moment
Then gravely pessimistic the next

         D
Irritable as a hornet sometimes
Then agreeable as it gets

G
I'm not a pagan
I don't worship anything

       G
Not gods that don't exist
Nor the sun which is oblivious

D
I love my ancestors but not ritually
I don't blame them or praise them

D
For anything that they passed along to me

G
I don't need stone altars to help me hedge my bet

D
Against the looming blackness
It is what it is

F#m   G     D
It is   what it is
F#m     Em     D