Intro G  C  D       G   C  D

G
There used to be a café a few blocks away,
C                  D                      G       C  D
Open seven days, called “The Brilliant Mistake”
G
Where a crow-haired girl with scarlet lips 
C                 D                    G       C  D
And slender hips served up coffee and cake
     Am                             
On a crackling stereo the ghosts of Sun Ra,
Em                                   D Dsus  D  Dsus
Charlie Parker, Miles and Coltrane blew
G                                                           C
I’d kick back in my chair, that sweet honey’d jazz in the air
D                      
The sun shining through

G
It was the nearest thing to hip
Am
It was the nearest thing to hip
         C        D         G 
In this shithole… and it’s gone
G
It was the nearest thing to hip
Am
It was the nearest thing to hip
         C        D         G 
In this shithole… and it’s gone

G  C  D       G   C  D

G
Everywhere that I go I see streets that are low
C                        D                    G       C  D
On distinction and high on the banal and the bland
G
How did we get to this? We plumbed the abyss
         C                  D                   G       C  D
By the twisted grace of the law of supply and demand
              Am
Well, there’s no use crying and no use sighing over
Em                              D Dsus  D  Dsus
Stone, wood, wire, glass and cement
G                                                  
But there’s a little record store with a wooden floor
            C                    D
That ain’t there no more that I used to frequent

G
It was the nearest thing to hip
Am
It was the nearest thing to hip
         C        D         G 
In this shithole… and it’s gone
G
It was the nearest thing to hip
Am
It was the nearest thing to hip
         C        D         G 
In this shithole… and it’s gone

Em                D             C         G
Now I need to get out of this.. hullabaloo
Em                D                 C            G       
And I remember an old-fashioned bar that I once knew
Bb                    Am     C                     G
With an old-fashioned barman wearing old-fashioned clothes
Am                      D 
But when I get there.. it’s been bulldozed

G
So I follow my nose down Comatose Lane
C                                    D                      G  C D
Through the stripped back, ripped up wastes of Woebegone Square
G
Till I find myself on Deadbeat Street,
C                     D                      G       C  D
My feet beginning to ache, despair in the air
Am
The only thing bright in this blighted town
       Em                             D Dsus  D  Dsus
Are the billboard adverts everywhere displayed like mocking shades
G
And the musty, dusty second-hand bookstore
         C                 D
Is now a scum-encrusted amusement arcade

G
It was the nearest thing to hip
Am
It was the nearest thing to hip
         C        D         G 
In this shithole… and it’s gone
G
It was the nearest thing to hip
Am
It was the nearest thing to hip
         C        D         G 
In this shithole… and it’s gone

G    C  D   G
         .. and it’s gone