Stuck In The Middle With You | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| D D/A D7omit3/A D6omit3/A | D7omit3/A D6omit3/A |
| D5/A D D/A D7omit3/A D6omit3/A | D7omit3/A D6omit3/A |
||: D/A | D/A :||
Verse 1
| D (D/A) | D (D/A) |
Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight.
| D (D/A) | D (D/A) |
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/A) | D (D/A) |
and I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs.
| A | C G |
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
| D5 (D5/A) | D5 (D5/A) |
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Verse 2
Yes, I’m stuck in the middle with you.
And I’m wondering what it is I should do.
It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face,
losing control, yeah I’m all over the place.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Bridge 1
| G | G | D Dsus2 D5 | D Dsus2 D5 G |
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/A) | D (D/A) :||
Verse 3
Trying to make some sense of it all.
But I can see it makes no sense at all.
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor?
‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Solo
| D (D/A) | D (D/A) | D (D/A) | D (D/A) |
| G | G | D (D/A) | D (D/A) |
| A | C G | D5 (D5/A) | D5 (D5/A) |
Bridge 2
When you started off with nothing and you’re proud that you’re a self-made man.
And your friends they all come crawling, slap you on the back, and say:
Please, please.
Instrumental 2
||: D (D/A) | D (D/A) :||
Verse 4
Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight.
I’ve got the feeling that something ain’t right
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
and I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Outro
||: D (D/A) | D (D/A) :||
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 Chords: Learn the 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 ignored.
Here are the chords for the rarely played intro, it won’t make much sense without TAB, although after you’ve seen the TAB, they might!
||: D D/A D7omit3/A (D6omit3/A) | D7omit3/A (D6omit3/A) :||
Here’s a link to the TAB for that intro: Stuck In The Middle With You – Guitar Lesson with TAB. When you can play it, can you only look at the chords and remember them?
As the band comes in, the main guitar starts strumming a different rhythm to the intro guitar, now just playing a D chord. To fatten it up, it’s better to play a D/A.
As the bass player plays a D, the chords with lyrics above are slightly misleading, they are for an acoustic guitar only.
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 chord (also known as the backdoor dominant) appears in the turnaround.
Compare this with Take Me To The River’s chords.
Here’s the full verse progression which also comes back for the solo:
| D/A (I) | D/A | D/A | D/A |
| G (IV) | G | D/A | D/A |
| A (V) | C (bVIIx) G | D5/A | D5/A |
I like having a D5/A at the end so when the verse repeats, we get the full triad, this wakes the listener up.
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, it starts on the IV chord, as most bridges do!
| G | G | D Dsus2 D5 | D Dsus2 D5 G |
| G | G | D | D | A | A |
The extensions over the D chord are what happens if you incorporate the slide part. There’s TAB for this section as well if you follow the link above.
Once you have the TAB down, all you’ll need is this simple chord chart. Here’s one I made for you.
Stuck In The Middle With You Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
If you haven’t practised with the TAB and fully understood that intro and the chord lick in the bridge, the chord chart above may look a bit strange.
On the other hand, if you have, and understand the intervals, it’s straightforward to follow.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Stuck In The Middle With You Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Stuck In The Middle With You iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
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 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 grassroots 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
Stuck In The Middle With You | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel using TAB and chord analysis.
| D/A | D/A |
Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Stealers Wheel tunes
Scottish folk rockers Stealers Wheel only had one hit from their debut album, 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
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Stuck In The Middle With You chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
