Elvis Costello – Green Shirt (Guitar)

Key

Versions (2)

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Chords

[Intro] C [Verse 1]

          C
There's a smart young woman on a light blue screen

                               F
That comes into my house every night

        C
And she takes all the red, yellow, orange and green

                                  F
And she turns them into black and white.

[Chorus]

        C              F
And you tease, and you flirt

        Bb            Bb/A            Bb/G  F
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt

        Bb                   F                       C
You can please yourself, but somebody's going to get it

       Bb           F          C
Better cut off all identifying labels

  Bb                F              G
Before they get you on the torture table

[Verse 2]

       C
'Cause somewhere in the Quisling Clinic

                                                      F
There's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes

      C
She's listening in to the Venus line

                                                 F
She's picking out names, I hope none of them are mine

[Chorus]

        C              F
And you tease, and you flirt

        Bb            Bb/A       Bb/G       F
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt

        Bb                   F                       C
You can please yourself, but somebody's going to get it

Bb                   F
  Never said I was a stool pigeon

Bb                   F
  Never said I was a diplomat

Bb             F
  Everybody is under suspicion but

C                            F
You don't want to hear about that

[Chorus]

        C              F
And you tease, and you flirt

        Bb            Bb/A       Bb/G       F
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt

        Bb                   F                       C   C
You can please yourself, but somebody's going to get it

       Bb             F             C          F
Better send a begging letter to the big investigation

Bb              F                C       F
  Who put these finger prints on my imagination

[Verse 3]

          C
There are wires in the windows, there are wires in the walls

                                                       F
There are wires in the kitchens, and wires in the halls

          C
There are wires on poles, there are wires in your face

                                                 F
There are wires in holes coming out all over the place

[Chorus]

        C              F
And you tease, and you flirt

        Bb            Bb/A       Bb/G       F
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt

        Bb                   F                       C
You can please yourself, but somebody's going to get it

        Bb                   F                       C
You can please yourself, but somebody's going to get it

        Bb                   F                       C
You can please yourself, but somebody's going to get it

From: William Vaughan Here's Elvis Costello's "Green Shirt" from the demo version off the Ryko reissued of "This Years Model". The original version is on "Armed Forces" and has very little guitar. For the demo version, there is an extra verse (the last one). Be sure to concentrate on the bass strings of the chords and use the up and down picking motion EC does (listen to the record for details)