Stuck In The Middle With You | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: D C/D G/D | C/D G/D C/D G/D :||
||: D | D :||
Verse 1
| D | D |
Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight.
| D | D |
I’ve got the feeling that something ain’t right.
| G | G |
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
| D | D |
and I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs.
| A | C G |
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
| D | D |
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Verse 2
| D | D |
Yes, I’m stuck in the middle with you.
| D | D |
And I’m wondering what it is I should do.
| G | G |
It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face,
| D | D |
losing control, yeah I’m all over the place.
| A | C G |
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
| D | D |
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Bridge 1
| G | G | D | D |
When you started off with nothing and you’re proud that you’re a self-made man.
| G | G |
And your friends they all come crawling, slap you on the back, and say:
| D | D | A | A |
Please, please.
Instrumental 1
||: D | D :||
Verse 3
| D | D |
Trying to make some sense of it all.
| D | D |
But I can see it makes no sense at all.
| G | G |
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor?
| D | D |
‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore.
| A | C G |
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
| D | D |
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Solo
| D | D | D | D |
| G | G | D | D |
| A | C G | D | D |
Bridge 2
| G | G | D | D |
When you started off with nothing and you’re proud that you’re a self-made man.
| G | G |
And your friends they all come crawling, slap you on the back, and say:
| D | D | A | A |
Please, please.
Instrumental 2
||: D | D :||
Verse 4
| D | D |
Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight.
| D | D |
I’ve got the feeling that something ain’t right
| G | G |
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
| D | D |
and I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs.
| A | C G |
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
| D | D |
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Outro
||: D | D :||
Yes, I’m stuck in the middle with you.
Stuck in the middle with you.
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
Stuck In The Middle With You’s chords and progressions
The intro has a guitar riff playing slash chords panned to the right. Whenever I play this in new bands, other members look confused, as usually it’s just ignored.
Here are the chords for the rarely played intro.
||: D C/D G/D | C/D G/D C/D G/D :||
As the band comes in, the main guitar starts strumming a different rhythm to the intro guitar, now just playing a D chord.
When Stuck In The Middle With You’s verse chords kick in, we move almost like a blues, just one odd chord in there, the bVIIx which appears in the turnaround. Compare this with Take Me To The River’s chords.
| D | D | D | D |
| G | G | D | D |
| A | C G | D | D |
As you can see, this is a 12-bar blues, with the only difference being after the V chord (the A) we go to a C chord, which is the bVIIx.
There is also a bridge, which starts on the IV chord, as most bridges do!
| G | G | D | D |
| G | G | D | D | A | A |
The secret behind Stuck In The Middle With You’s success
What is the secret behind Stealers Wheel’s Stuck In The Middle With You? I put it down to two main things. First, the meaning of the lyrics, and second, the one unexpected chord!
- DHM. Nile Rodgers claims that all great songs have a deeper hidden meaning. In this song, it’s the lyrics that seem really obscure, but once you get it you feel like you’re in on the joke. The DHM is: Stoned artist sleeps on the floor, friends come begging for money, everybody wants to be your friend now that you’re famous and you’re getting paranoid because you’re stoned.
- Familiarity with a twist. A 12-bar blues and a bridge starting on chord IV are familiarities personified. The bVIIx chord is the twist.
There’s also a strong case to be made for its popularity is down to how popular culture embraced it.
This classic tune has been featured in big movies, but also on a grass root level with bar bands playing Stuck In The Middle With You every Saturday night for decades.
Stuck In The Middle With You chords | Related pages
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Stealers Wheel
Scottish folk rockers Stealers Wheel only had one hit from their debut album with Stuck In The Middle With You.
After the band split a few years later, their main songwriter, Gerry Rafferty moved on to a solo career and wrote Baker Street.
Stealers Wheel on the web
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