Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello - Imagination guitar tab

This is just an update I did over the summer.

The original tab came from Aaron Yarlas, and thanks

is owed to J. Cooper and Paul Andersen as well.

Any corrections are welcomed, and if someone was

inclined to do a bass-tab, well that would be swell.

N-joy, will.

Imagination (Is a Powerful Deceiver)

words & music by Elvis Costello

from the Rykodisc rerelease of ÒMy Aim Is TrueÓ

Cleaned up by Will Lipchitz

Intro (2x):

Em - D G - D

e---12-12-12-12-12-10------------7-7-7-7-7-10

B---12-12-12-12-12-10------------8-8-8-8-8-10

G---12-12-12-12-12-11------------7-7-7-7-7-11

D G

So you're trying to make connection, you heard whispers in the hall

D F#m Bm D D7 G

She'll be out again this evening, when you come around to call

D F#m Bm D Bb

So, you dodge the lady-killer, who came creepin' 'cross the floor

D F#m Bm D D7 G

The you caught up in a whirlwind, you got blown right out the door

D F#m Bm D Bb

Oh, yes it was a whirlwind, sweet romance was on your side

D G

If you wanna dance on my face, you must tell me why you lied

D F#m Bm G D

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

F#m Bm C G

When you try to believe her just a little too much

D F#m Bm G D

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

G D G D

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

D G

I see a look of recognition, so well hidden in your eye

D F#m Bm D D7 G

And your peepshow regulations, they just don't seem to apply,

D F#m Bm D Bb

Well, did I see you in the circus, in the ring without a hand

D F#m Bm D D7 G

Now you think that you can curse us, steal the show and stop the band

D F#m Bm D Bb

Oh, you can follow your dreams, oh but please don't lead me on,

D G

If you wanna bleed in my face, you were here and now you're gone

D F#m Bm G D

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

F#m Bm C G

When you try to believe her just a little too much

D F#m Bm G D

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

G D G D

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

(repeat intro and end on D)

From: schnitzi@east.isx.com (Mark J. Schnitzius)

Imagination (Is A Powerful Deceiver)

from the Rykodisc rerelease of My Aim Is True

tabbed by yarlas@cognet.ucla.edu (Aaron Yarlas)

Note: This is the way I play the song; his chords might actually be

different, but the basic sound and changes are the same.

Instr. Intro.:

D E

G A

D E

A E

E A

So you're trying to make connection, you heard whispers in the hall

E A

She'll be out again this evening, when you come around to call

E C

So, you dodge the lady-killer, who came creepin' 'cross the floor

E A

Then you caught up in a whirlwind, you got blown right out the door

A

Oh, yes it was a whirlwind, sweet romance was on your side

E A D A

If you wanna dance on my face, you must tell me why you lied

E A E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

A D A

When you try to believe her just a little too much

E E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

A D E

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

D E

G A

D E

A E

E A

I see a look of recognition, so well hidden in your eye

E A

And your peepshow regulations, they just don't seem to apply,

E C

Well, did I see you in the circus, in the ring without a hand

E A

Now you think that you can curse us, steal the show and stop the band

E A

Oh, you can follow your dreams, oh but please don't lead me on,

E A D A

If you wanna bleed in my face, you were here and now you're gone

E A D E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

A D A

When you try to believe her just a little too much

E A D E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

A D E

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

A D E

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

A D E

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

Note2: Some of the accents on the chords might be a little off; when I

converted

the document, it messed up the format, and I don't have my guitar handy.

Enjoy!

From owner-costello@gnu.ai.mit.edu Sun Jan 30 00:36:14 1994

Received: from haifa.isx.com by voyager.east.isx.com (4.1/3.1.090690-ISX)

id AA02327; Sun, 30 Jan 94 00:36:10 EST

Received: from geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu by haifa.isx.com (4.1/3.1.090690- ISX)

id AA15513; Sat, 29 Jan 94 21:40:33 PST

Received: by geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0)

id ; Sun, 30 Jan 94 00:08:38 -0500

Received: from cheetah.csl.uiuc.edu by geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP

id ; Sun, 30 Jan 94 00:08:34 -0500

Received: by cheetah.csl.uiuc.edu id AA06969

(5.67a/IDA-1.5 for costello@gnu.ai.mit.edu); Sat, 29 Jan 1994 23:08:32 -0600

From: Napoleon Dynamite

Message-Id:

Subject: "Imagination" chords

To: costello@gnu.ai.mit.edu

Date: Sat, 29 Jan 1994 23:08:31 -0600 (CST)

X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL5]

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Content-Length: 1792

Status: R

I hate to say this, and I don't want to sound ungrateful for someone's

efforts, but the chords listed for the song "Imagination..." are way, WAY

oversimplified. If you had to play this song with just E, A, D, G, and C

chords, I suppose these versions would do...but the progressions are far more

involved than that.

***Example, posted version:

E C

Well, did I see you in the circus, in the ring without a hand

E A

Now you think that you can curse us, steal the show and stop the band

***The way I hear it:

A E C

Well, did I see you in the circus, in the ring without a hand

G#m C#m Bm E7 A

Now you think that you can curse us, steal the show and stop the band

***Posted version:

E A D E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

A D A

When you try to believe her just a little too much

E A D E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

A D E

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

***The way I hear it:

E B C#m E/B A E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

G#m C#m D A

When you try to believe her just a little too much

G#m C#m A E

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

A E A E

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

There are far too many D chords in the posted version -- the only

time there's actually a D chord is in the chorus ("...a little too much"),

and I can't find a G chord in the whole song to save me.

From owner-costello@gnu.ai.mit.edu Sat Feb 5 02:10:44 1994

Received: from haifa.isx.com by voyager.east.isx.com (4.1/3.1.090690-ISX)

id AA00320; Sat, 5 Feb 94 02:10:40 EST

Received: from geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu by haifa.isx.com (4.1/3.1.090690- ISX)

id AA01832; Fri, 4 Feb 94 23:15:09 PST

Received: by geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0)

id ; Sat, 5 Feb 94 01:37:03 -0500

Received: from MITVMA.MIT.EDU by geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) with SMTP

id ; Sat, 5 Feb 94 01:36:58 -0500

Message-Id:

Received: from MITVMA.MIT.EDU by mitvma.mit.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)

with BSMTP id 1906; Sat, 05 Feb 94 01:37:01 EST

Received: from UCLAMVS.BITNET (NJE origin MAILER@UCLAMVS) by MITVMA.MIT.EDU

(LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 9771; Sat, 5 Feb 1994 01:37:01 -0500

Date: Fri, 04 Feb 94 22:37 PST

To: *Emotional Toothpaste*

From: Paul AndersEn

Subject: "real" chords to Imagination

Status: R

After seeing a couple of posting regarding the chords to Imagination

I decided to try my hand at figuring them out because neither of the

versions I saw worked. I don't know if the writers guitars were out

of tune or what, but they definately are not the chords that EC is

playing on the recording. So at the risk of being severly flamed I

will post my version of the chords. I don't think they are perfect

by any means, but if you play these chords along with the recording

at least it will sound like the same song.

D G

So you're trying to make connection, you heard whispers in the hall

D F#m Bm D Dm G

She'll be out again this evening, when you come around to call

D F#m Bm D A#

So, you dodge the lady-killer, who came creepin' 'cross the floor

D F#m Bm D Dm G

The you caught up in a whirlwind, you got blown right out the door

D A#

Oh, yes it was a whirlwind, sweet romance was on your side

D G

If you wanna dance on my face, you must tell me why you lied

D F#m Bm G D

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

F#m Bm C G

When you try to believe her just a little too much

D F#m Bm G D

Imagination is a powerful deceiver

G D G D

I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

Then the second part is the same as the first, except for the ending.

The weird thing about this song is that while it sounds like it doesn't

flow right on the recording, when you are playing and singing the tune

it sounds perfect, and it's tons of fun to play. If these chords work

for you, experiment with adding in the bass line, you will find that

much of the bass line can be played without having to use alternate

fingerings for the chords.

Enjoy

Paul Andersen

Get this song at:  amazon.com sheetmusicplus.com

Share your thoughts

Comments