Stuck In The Middle With You chords by Stealers Wheel


Video blocked due to privacy settings

[rcb-consent type=”change” tag=”link” text=”Change privacy settings”]

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!

  1. 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.
  2. 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


Beginner Acoustic

Beginner Acoustic Songs

This collection of beginner acoustic tunes will teach you how to arrange for one acoustic guitar, as well as how to create a supporting part.

Playing songs will help you with switching between open-position chords and give you the context you need in order to understand how music works theoretically.


Five similar tunes

When you can play Stuck In The Middle With You's chords, try these five tunes from the song book.

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

Listen to Stealers Wheel on Spotify.

Pop & Rock

Pop & Rock tunes

Whenever a tune doesn’t fit into a specific genre, it tends to end up here, in the Pop & Rock section.

Learn tunes from Tom Petty, Eagles, Toto, Oasis, Elvis, Clapton, John Mayer, Kings Of Leon, R.E.M., Radiohead, Bruno Mars, and more.