Southern California Wants To Be Western New York chords by Dar Williams

Chords with lyrics

G+G                    B minorBm      C majorC     D MajorD
There's a part of the country could drop off tomorrow in an earthquake,
G+G                  B minorBm        C majorC     D MajorD
Yeah, it's out there on the cutting edge, the people move, the sidewalks shake.
E minorEm                B minorBm        C majorC     D MajorD
And there's another part of the country with a land that gently creaks and thuds,
 E minorEm                B minorBm         C majorC    D MajorD
Where the heavy snows make faucets leak in bathrooms with free-standing tubs.
   G+G                 B minorBm       C majorC    D MajorD      E minorEm
They're in houses that are haunted, the with kids who lie awake and think about
               C majorC        D MajorD    G+G
All the generations past who used to use that dripping sink.


E minorEm                 B minorBm      C majorC    D MajorD
And sometimes one place wants to slip into the other just to see
E minorEm                B minorBm        C majorC        D MajorD
What it's like to trade its demons for the restless ghost of Mrs. Ogilvey,
  G+G                    B minorBm        C majorC   D MajorD
She used to pick the mint from her front yard to dress the Sunday pork,
  G+G              D MajorD    C majorC  G+G
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.

G+G                    B minorBm      C majorC     D MajorD
It wants to have a family business in sheet metal or power tools,
G+G                  B minorBm        C majorC     D MajorD
It wants to have a diner where the coffee tastes like diesel fuel,
E minorEm                B minorBm        C majorC     D MajorD
And it wants to find the glory of a town they say has hit the skids,
 E minorEm                B minorBm         C majorC    D MajorD
And it wants to have a snow day that will turn its parents into kids,
   G+G                 B minorBm       C majorC    D MajorD      E minorEm
And it's embarrassed, but it's lusting after a SUNY student with mousy brown hair who is
               C majorC        D MajorD    G+G
Taking out the compost, making coffee in long underwear.


E minorEm                 B minorBm      C majorC    D MajorD
And southern California says to save a place, I'll meet you there,
E minorEm                B minorBm        C majorC  D MajorD
And it tried to pack up its Miata, all it could fit was a prayer,
  G+G                   B minorBm        C majorC   D MajorD
Sometimes the stakes are bogus, sometimes the fast lane hits a fork,
  G+G              D MajorD    C majorC       G+G
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.


E minorEm                 B minorBm      C majorC    D MajorD
Tempe, Arizona thinks the Everglades are greener and wetter,
E minorEm                B minorBm        C majorC  D MajorD
And Washington, D.C. thinks that Atlanta integrated better,
  G+G                   B minorBm        C majorC   D MajorD
But I think that southern California has more pain that we can say,
  G+G              D11D11    C majorC         G+G
'Cause it wants to travel back in time, but it just can't leave L.A.

G+G                    B minorBm      C majorC     D MajorD
But now I hear they've got a theme park planned, designed to make you gasp and say,
G+G                  B minorBm        C majorC     D MajorD
Oh, I bet that crumbling mill town was a booming mill town in its day,
E minorEm                B minorBm        C majorC     D MajorD
And the old investors scoff at this, but the young ones hope they'll take a chance,
 E minorEm                B minorBm         C majorC    D MajorD
And they promise it will make more dough than Mickey Mouse in northern France,
   G+G                 B minorBm       C majorC    D MajorD      E minorEm
And the planners planned an opening day, a town historian will host,
               C majorC        D MajorD    G+G
And the waitresses look like waitresses who want to leave for the west coast.


E minorEm                 B minorBm      C majorC           D MajorD
And they'll have puttering on rainy weekends, autumn days that make you feel sad,
E minorEm                B minorBm        C majorC      D MajorD
They'll have hundred year old plumbing and the family you never had,
  G+G                   B minorBm        C majorC   D MajorD
And a Niagara River clean-up concert and a bundle-bearing stork,
  G+G              D11D11    C majorC         G+G