Chords for Kim Mitchell & 'Blue' on Guitar Picks

[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ [G] _ _
_ [Bb] _ [G] This instrument pisses me off a lot [Cm]
because [F] I [G] have to work for it.
[Bb] _ [Gb] _
[G] _ _ _ _ [Gm] Okay, it's probably a strange thing to say about your favorite guitar,
but everything about this instrument is just a little off kilter. _ _
[C] _ _ [Bb] _ [F] _ I [G] have other guitars that I can [Bb] instantly pick [Bb] up and [C] I can, _ I'm relaxed.
I [Abm] feel this thing, I'm like, okay, I have to warm up on it.
There's just something about the neck.
I've had different necks on this thing and I keep coming back to this neck
because it's like the lesser of the evils.
But there's something also a bit evil that this guitar goes,
I'm going to make you work for it, and it [B] does.
_ [Db] _ [B] This guitar started [Ab] off as a [Abm] hot-rotted Gibson hollow body. _
_ _ _ The only thing I liked when I saw it was this coil tap switch here,
which to explain quickly, there's two coils that run down these pickups
and this just shuts off one pole piece, which makes the guitar a little chimey
and a little toppy and a little more like a fender.
So sometimes you just keep trying, you keep trying, keep trying,
and then you realize, [N] I'm just not connecting with this instrument.
So I said, I'm going to sell the guitar, but I like the stuff in it,
so I ripped everything out of it.
I ripped the electronics, the pots, the pickup, these pickups,
the coil tap switch, everything, and just threw it in a filing cabinet.
It was just, you know, just, and it was there for years.
I sold the guitar as a [G] shell. _ _
[Bb] _ [G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Bb] _
[D] [G] Now _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] [Ebm] this time I was [Am] spending a lot of time on the road,
first [Ab] with my group [G] Max Webster, then solo.
_ _ Musically I was trying out a lot of different [F] things,
and that included guitars, _ like the first Telecaster I ever bought.
[G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ [Bb] _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
[Em] _ With the Tele, I just sort of sat there and played it.
_ _ _ I went to actually try an amp, [F] and I started playing the Tele,
and as I was doing the amp, I was going, well, this kind of feels nice.
I go back to the [B] amp each week, and I go, oh, this feels really good.
And I'm like, I have to have this.
It's just a feeling I get, combination of neck and what's,
I don't know, what I sort of wanted at the time.
You know, I wanted a Tele at the time, and I was like, ooh, I like this, okay.
I'm going to take it.
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [Abm] _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Abm] _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [E] _
_ [B] _ _ _ Connecting with the guitar is more than [E] just a [Eb] nice neck, [E] the sound. _ _
There's [Eb] something that it [E] reaches _ inside your soul,
and you just enjoy playing it, and you get [A] your music out.
It helps [E] bring out [B] that intangible thing that hits you in the top of the head,
comes through you, and comes out [A] on this, and then out your [E] speakers, right?
I mean, [Gbm] that's sort of the process.
[E] Wherever these ideas come from, I don't know,
they sort [A] of come in your head, [E] through your heart, through your hands,
through your instrument, [Gb] out and into the audience.
It's [Db] just sort of that little flow, and if you don't [B] have the right instrument,
it can kind of get plugged [A] and stopped in that spot. _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [Db] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ So by [A] 1982, _ Blue, my favorite guitar, the guitar I love to hate,
found its way [B] out of the filing cabinet drawer
full of [E] electronic bits and pieces purely by accident.
[B] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [A] _
[B] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [E] _
[B] One day, my guitar tech was, [E] just at a little back,
sort of office slash recording studio I had, and he's looking,
and I had the filing cabinet, and he goes, what's that?
I said, I don't know, he said, it's just a bunch of parts from a Gibson 347.
He said, _ why don't you let me build something?
I said, okay, sure, yeah, if you want to go ahead.
He said, well, go buy a neck and a body you like.
So I can't even remember where I got the neck and the body. _
You know, I didn't know anything about woods, alders, I didn't know anything.
I just went, oh, I like that blue one right there, and this neck, I kind of felt it.
It's hard to tell when there's no strings on it. _ _ _
_ And so he threw this together, and I remember at the time I had a couple strats.
It was at a college gig, and he finished this guitar, and I was like, oh, _ it's okay, I guess.
I was playing it, and I was kind of going, I don't really like the way it plays too much,
but I plugged it in, and immediately the sound man out front just yelled out the loudest,
_ _ _ profane words, like, holy, what!
I was like, what?
He goes, that thing sounds amazing, because there was a bottom, there was a beautiful bottom to it,
and yet it had a chimey top without, you know, sometimes guitars have that top that's like, ah. _ _
So from then on, I was like, wow, this thing does, yeah, it's like, it had some kind of mojo
coming out of the amp that I'd never heard from a guitar, just for me,
and I connected with this instrument immediately.
[Ab] _ Ever [Db] since that [A] fateful sound check, my guitar, Blue, has been along for the ride.
Let's do rock and roll duty.
You guys want to do that for the sound check? _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ You _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ [A] _ _ [Am] _
ever fallen in love with a woman? _ _ _
That's what it's like.
_ You [E] just, there's [Bm] a certain sound and a certain feel, and you know, for [A] me,
most of [Dm] my time is spent on the road, so [E]
I really needed a guitar that [B] felt, _ _
played and [Am] sounded, played reasonably well, because on stage when you're playing live,
you're going to have good nights [B] and bad nights.
Some nights you're going to feel like,
what, did I just start this like a week ago?
And other nights you're going to be happening,
but I needed a guitar that just _ fit right in the band's spectrum of sound,
and this guitar did.
It was like every sound man that came along was like,
oh my God, that guitar sounds so good in your band, to the point where I've played gigs
and other past sound men have showed up, and they don't even ask, how's Kim?
They go, did he bring Blue?
Because I call the guitar Blue, so I said, has he got Blue here?
Okay, I'm going to stick around for a couple minutes. _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ [E] I've seen this [B] instrument in a case thrown 30 feet in the air and slammed [Abm] down on a [Eb] tarmac
in an [E] airplane, and it's pretty [B] solid, so _ _ [Gb] [B] I have to consider all that stuff with a guitar.
But yeah, I don't really enjoy playing [E] this.
[Eb] I have other [E] pieces at home I love playing,
[B]
recording with, [Gb] _ [E] but there's just something [B] else about this guitar that has _ [E] something [Eb] else happen,
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ and that's my Blue.