Chords for Carl Perkins I Was There When It Happened

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_ _ [E] Now it all started in a small storefront recording studio operated by Sun Records.
That studio was about to come alive once [G] again with the sound that touched all [Bm] of us.
Today, [Em] we call it Rock [E] and Roll.
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_ _ Now [N] for Carl Perkins,
this particular recording studio has a [D] very special meaning.
Carl recorded Blue Suede [Gm] Shoes right here.
[A] As a matter of fact, he wrote it one night [Em] on a paper sack,
[E] recorded it a day or so later and saw it go all the [A] way to number two in the nation. _
With that song, [E] Carl Perkins became one of the founding fathers of Rock and Roll.
_ You know Carl, oftentimes one event, one thing can change a person's life forever.
And with your writing of Blue Suede Shoes, a lot of lives were changed forever.
They learned about rockabilly and rock and roll.
[A] How did that all come about?
I was playing a club in Jackson, Tennessee _ for [E] a sorority.
They [Fm] hired a little group to play and this cat [Ab] _ said that to a girl.
He said, uh-uh, don't step on my suede.
And she was so pretty that _ it bothered me that he thought that much of the shoes.
It really did.
It tore me up because I had not owned a pair of them at that time.
I wanted them but I was a little out of my class, you know, to be able to afford that.
[Bb] _ _ Uh, but I couldn't get it out of my mind.
I went back to that project house that night and I was just, I could see her.
I could see him that proud of his shoes.
Her feelings was hurt.
My soul was tore up.
I was, I just couldn't go to sleep.
I mean, I asked one for the money, two for the show, three get ready, four to go.
I went downstairs.
I took my little old guitar _ _ and I, something like this.
[Ab] I said, one, one for the money, _ two for the show, _ three to get ready, _ go, [B] cat [Db] go, but don't you.
[N] My wife stuck her head down the _ upstairs.
We had two rooms up and two down and she said, Carl, you're gonna wake up these babies.
But I said, whose song is that?
I said, it's ours.
Well, Nashville had country music, _ [A] _ [Em] _ _
[A] _ but [Abm] Memphis had the [Am] soul.
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[Am] _ _ _ _ Lord, the white boy had the rhythm _ _ [A] and that started rock and roll.
And [D] I was here when it happened. _
Don't y'all think I [A] ought to know?
_ Yeah, yeah, yeah.
_ [E] I was here when it happened.
[D] I watched [C] Memphis give birth [A] to rock and roll.
_ Lord, Lord, yeah.
_ [E] _ [A] Well, the cat came every day, bopped into the sun right off [G] the [Ab] street.
[A] [E] Same blue moon of old KY, but he did it with a [G] brand new [Ab] beat.
[A] Guess he caught him [G] asleep and whirling out there, blasted the [Ab] pride.
[A] He came up, he rang him out, he hung him out to [D] dry.
I was here when it happened. _
Don't y'all think [A] I ought to know?
Lord, Lord, _ [E] yeah, I was here when it happened.
[D] I watched Memphis [C] give birth to rock [A] and roll.
_ This kind of way it happened.
[Em] _ [A] Well, the dawn before was the [Dbm] beating on drums, just rocking and it [G] going [Ab] wild.
[Gbm] They [E] said the picker was clicking and clacking, but doing it in a different [G] [Ab] style.
[A] Jim Cross drumming at the [F] end, the pumping and the leading man kicking [G] out the [Ab] blues.
[A] This Jackie Singer was swinging and swinging, saying, some bad blues, great shoes.
[D] I was here when it happened. _
Lord, I think I [A] ought to know?
Yeah, yeah.
_ [E] Folks, I was here when it happened.
[D] I watched [G] Memphis give birth [A] to rock and roll. _
What you think about it, little guitar?
[E] Come [A] on, son. _ _ _
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[D] _ _ [C] _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ _ Some folks called it [G] the devil's music, others said it wouldn't [Ab] last [N] long.
Thirty-one years since we started shaking, [G] proved somebody was [Ab] wrong.
[Dbm] The Beatles [G] in the four with the plucking rope, best [Ab] friends.
[A] The [Bm] Beatles in the song took the [A] old beat home and the world went crazy again.
[D] I was here when it happened.
My friend, I think I [A] ought to know? _
Yeah, yeah.
Well, [E] I was here when it happened.
[D] I watched [C] Memphis give birth to [A] rock and roll.
[D] _
[A] Lord, yeah.
[E] Come [A] on.
_ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ It's hard for me to believe that I _ influenced [G] with that [D] little old simple guitar. _
_ [G] _ I certainly [A] didn't mean to [G] mess up anybody's music.
[E] I just played it the only [D] way I knew how.
[C] Still [A] do.
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[A] _ _ _ [Em] _ [A] _ _ Carl _ _ _ _ _ _ Perkins is like a brother to me.
[Am] We grew up just across the Mississippi River from each [Bb] other.
[A] I've always been a fan of his guitar playing, especially in the [D] way he dances on stage.
I've [Bb] always [E] wished I could move my feet like that. _
[D] _ [C] _ The [A] _ [D] _ _ [A] _
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_ _ _ _ first real rock and roll record I ever heard [G] was Carl Perkins singing Blue [Dm] Suede Shoes,
you know, on the radio.
_ [A] And right then I knew what I wanted to do.
When they said in the [E] beginning _ that [D] _
[C] our music wouldn't [A] last, it'll be gone,
[D] it's just one of [A] those things.
It's gonna go.
[Em] There's nothing to it.
_ That would hurt when I would hear [A] or read that preachers were breaking our [D] records and
[E] calling it [Dm] the devil's music and [Am] putting us down because I never [Gm] felt that we were [E] spreading evil.
I thought [D] it was something to make [C] people forget and [A] feel good.
That's what [D] it did for me.
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