Chords for Chet Atkins - A Life In Music - Part 1

entirely different [Bb] and it's a great [Am] complement to each other.
It's a great [Ab] contrast.
And so
[G] went down there [Gm] and Chet and I made the album together.
_ _ _ [Bb] It was a great thing that we [D] let a
tape machine run and get all [G] our little [Gm] comments that we made on the [Bbm] side there.
[G] And we found that they worked very great in [Am] the album.
How'd you like that?
[Gm] Yeah.
_ _ [F] _ _
You know, you've been [C] playing a long time and I admire you very much.
No, you've been an old timer too.
You've been my inspiration, but you're playing the damn thing
wrong.
[C] You got to play a little faster.
See, you mean more nervous?
So we had a lot of [F] fun making
it and it was fun to record the rehearsal [Gb] and put that out instead of refining it down to [Gm] where we
hit it perfect and lose [Bbm] all the spontaneity.
_ [F] _
There's these two [D] huge legends, you know,
[C] either one of them [G] we couldn't do without.
[Gm] _ _ _ _ Chet had [F] me at a disadvantage because he could copy
what I was doing, [C] but I couldn't copy what he was doing.
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _
We [Am] sell albums here at the club and
[D] right to this day, [Gm] the most [Bb] wanted is Chester [Bbm] and Lester.
[F] And it far exceeds [D] anything I've ever
made with [C] anybody [F] because [Db] it's [F] just, _ [Fm] it lives forever.
[Db] _ _ [F] _ I never mind play with [Eb] Chet Atkins just
to be able to [B] sit in a room and watch him play.
It's right arm stuff [A] there.
[B] Thank you, Mark. _
[E] We enjoyed doing the things that we'd done before, little things.
And we thought about
doing a record. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
We [A] ended up doing this record at each other's houses, really,
some [B] of it at Chet's house [E] and some in a little house that I had in London.
In fact, in Chet's
house, I went into a bit of a, my own little [A] world at that age as a child does.
And I [E] just sat with
headphones on this little turntable and I [B] just soaked up as many Chet Atkins songs [Ab] and things as
I could.
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [Abm] _ _
_ _ I decided I'd write him a letter.
I found this address on the back of an RCA [E] album.
It was something along the lines of, [Gb] you know, dear Mr.
Atkins, I've got all your albums.
I'm a
big fan.
And [Gbm] I live in this little town called Parks in [E] New South Wales, in Australia.
[Db] And I
play your stuff.
[E] I probably said that.
_ _ [Dbm] _ One day I came [A] home from school and my mother met me at [Gbm] the
door and she said, [C] go into your room.
[A] There's something on [Gm] the bed for you.
I [Gb] raced in there
and there was [G] this brown envelope with [E] American stamps on it.
[Ab] _
_ _ [E] So I opened the envelope and it's
a beautiful type [Am] letter from [F] Chet, but it's very [C] personal.
And he answered [Em] all the questions that I
[G] had asked.
_ [C] _ _ _ [E] _ _
[Am] _ _ [F] _ [C] And I was really encouraged by [Am] that, that this guy who we [C] just idolized as the god
[F] of guitar and to [G] take the time to actually [Am] write to somebody, [D]
that's what blew my mind in the first
place.
[C] _ _ _ [Am] He's been [F] more of a friend [C] than anybody in this business [Em] to me because he's always told me
the truth.
[C] He's always been honest with me.
[Ab] You know, I [A] can go and play anywhere [C] in the world
because I learned to play the way I did.
That's what [Gb] I do.
I make a living playing this [C] guitar
and [Am] I owe so much to him.
_ [A] _ _
I would [C] have to give him a lot of credit for _ just making [F] me feel like,
you know, I had [Eb] something that [Am] was unique and different [D] and that was enough [C] to make an artist.
[E] _ _ [Am] There are always going to be key figures [C] who've [G] helped shape [Dm] the way that we [C] relate to the music
and the music [A] now.
The music now has already become the music [Em] now because of the way that it was.
[D] _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ [E] _
[Am] So I can say [F] in my [Em] resume that I've actually [C] recorded a song with the Nashville Master. _
[A] And it's a good feeling, you know, to be able to go to my [C] repertoire and pull out a record and say,
[Db] I bet you didn't [C] know I had this going on.
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _ _