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Inner City Blues

Transcribed by Glenn Coggin

This song is originally played in the key of F# on the 'Cold Fact' album. If you put a capo on the second fret and play it in E it’s much easier (and was probably written in E & taken up). So these are the chords with the capo on.
Just to confuse things – if you’re playing along with the 'Live Fact' version take the capo off, because it’s in E on that recording. There are some more notes at the end about the twiddly bits.

Intro: (see notes below)
E, A

E                                                                 A
Going down a dirty inner city side road, I plotted
E                                                              A
Madness passed me by, she smiled hi, I nodded
E                                 B7                       E
Looked up as the sky began to cry, she shot it

E                                        A                                             E
Met a girl from Dearborn, early six o’clock this morn, a cold fact
A                                                                                 E
Asked about her bag, suburbia’s such a drag, won’t go back


         G                              D        A   E
'Cos Papa don’t allow no new ideas here
        G                                              D           A         E
And now he sees the news, but the pictures not too clear
A                                                                                                                E
Mama, Papa, stop, treasure what you got; soon you may be caught without it
       A                                                                               E
The curfew’s set for eight; will it ever all be straight? I doubt it.    

Seven jealous fools playing by her rules, can't believe her 
He feels so in between, can't break the scene, it would grieve her 
And that's the reason why he must cry, he'll never leave her. 
Crooked children, yellow chalk
writing on the concrete walk, their King died 
Drinking from a Judas cup, looking down but seeing up, sweet red wine

'Cos Papa don't allow no new ideas here 
And now you hear the music, but the words don't sound too clear.
Mama, Papa, stop, Treasure what you got, soon you may be caught without it
The curfew's set for eight will it ever all be straight? I doubt it.
Going down a dusty, Georgian side road, I wonder
The wind splashed in my face, can smell a trace, of thunder.

Notes: The introduction starts with down beats on the E chords, and then goes into intermittent E & Em, before going up to the A.
Once on the A there's a bluesy riff using your little finger on the thin E string on the 3rd and 2nd fret. This riff goes on a lot throughout the song if you can manage it.