Elvis Costello & The Attractions – This Is Hell (Guitar)

from: Christian Korbanka, Cologne, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
lyrics and chords of: This Is Hell by Elvis Costello And The Attractions

          D            A          G            Em
This is hell, this is hell, I am  ...sorry to tell you,

    D              A          G      (G) (G/F#) (G/E)
It ...never gets better, or worse,

D                   A          G           Em7
   But you'll get used to it,     after a spell,

      D        A           Cadd9
For heaven is hell in re - verse!

       G
The bruiser spun a hula -  hoop

                D
While all the barmen preen and pout,

      G                               D
The neon "I" of "night club" flickers on and off,

                  C
And finally blew out,

                      Am                             C
The irritating jingle of the belly-dancing phoney Turkish girls,

                    Am
The eerie glare of ultra - violet perfect dental work!

D                          A          G            Em
    This is hell, this is hell, I am  ...sorry to tell you,

    D               A        G                     Em7
It ...never gets better or worse! (It never gets better or worse!)

D                  A           G           Em7
   But you'll get used to it,     after a spell,

      D        A           Cadd9
For heaven is hell in re - verse!

      G
The failed Don Juan, in the big bow-tie,

          D
Is very sorry that he spoke,

     G
For he's mislaid his punch-line,

           D                                  C
More than half- way through a very tasteless joke,

                                 Am
The Fräulein caught him peeking down her gown,

                     C
He's yelling in her ear,

                            Am
And all at once the music stopped,

                         A           A7
As he was intimately bellowing, "My dear...

            D              A         G           Em
...This is hell, this is hell, I am ...sorry to tell you,

      D         A         G                    Em7
It never gets better or worse, (It never gets better or worse!)

D                  A          G            Em
   But you'll get used to it,     after a spell,

      D        A           Cadd9
For heaven is hell in re - verse!

     Dm                    G
The shirt you wore with courage,

          C      Em    F
And the violent nylon suit,

        Dm             G
Reap - pear upon your back,

             C                 F
And under - mine the polished line you try to shoot,

Dm                 G               C
    It's not the torment of the flames,

       Em      F                      D
That finally seize your flesh cor - rupted,

                                                   G
It's the small humiliations that your memory piles up, 

                          Em7                           D
(This is  hell!) This is hell, (This is hell!) this is hell! (Hell!)

        G                              D
'My favourite things' are playing a - gain, and again,

      G                         D
But it's by Julie Andrews, and not by John Coltrane,

   G                        D
Endless balmy breezes in perfect sunsets framed,

   G                              D                                 C
Vintage wine for breakfast, and naked starlets floating in Cham - pagne

                          Am                             C
All the passions of your youth ...are tranquilised and tamed,

                              Am
You may think it looks fa - miliar,

       Am7             A           A7
Though you may know it by another name...

            D               A        G           Em
...This is hell, this is hell, I am ...sorry to tell you,

      D         A         G                    Em7
It never gets better or worse, (It never gets better or worse!)

D                  A          G            Em
   But you'll get used to it,     after a spell,

      D        A           Cadd9                              D
For heaven is hell in re - verse, (This is hell!)  This hell!