First you lose the rhyming (video)

G C

First you lose the rhyming, then you lose the timing,

D G - D

then you lose the money, then you lose the friends.

G

And you try for one more song,

C

but the words don’t come and the chords are wrong,

D G

whisky bottle won’t last long before it ends.

Em D

1. I met him in a bar room in Chicago,

Em A - D

I was writing what became of things we knew,

C G Em

about the ones who let their shooting star go out of sight,

A D

the one-hit-wonder boys who never grew,

A A7 D

and I asked him, “Sir, what happened then to you ?” (He said...)

+ CHORUS

Em D

2. He told me it’s an old and tired story,

Em A D

you’ll need a way to make it sound brand new.

C G Em

So tell ‘em that I had my share of glory once all right,

A D

but I had somebody strong to see me through,

A A7 D

and she told me all the things I shouldn’t do (And she said...).

+ CHORUS

Em D

3. But I did all a young man does for money,

Em A D

with all those young girls coming on so strong.

C G Em

And that’s how come I lost my little honey to the road,

A D

‘cause she went off and wrote it in a song.

Em D

4. And now you see her up there on the TV,

Em A - D

she’s a superstar and everybody knows.

C G Em

She sings a broken heart just like it should be sung each night,

A D

and I never miss a second of her shows,

A A7 D

and I know the way the chorus always goes.

G C

First you lose the rhyming, then you lose the timing,

D G - D

then you lose the money, then you lose the friends.

G

And you try for one more song,

C

but the words don’t come and the chords are wrong,

D G

whisky bottle won’t last long before it ends.

G

+ Yes, you try for one more song,

C

words don’t come, chords are wrong,

D C - G

whisky bottle won’t last long before it ends.

(Harvey Andrews)