Chords for Rufus Wainwright Interview & Grey Gardens - 2002

_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G#] Oh, look, it's _ Rufus Wainwright.
_ Hi.
How do you do?
Nice to meet you.
[D#] This is Harry, by the way.
Hi, Harry.
Is it all right that Harry's on the set?
You know, it's fine.
Is it okay?
You're not allergic to dogs or anything?
No, no, no.
You want to sit down?
[E] _ I have a dog's name, so.
You do?
Rufus.
[A#] _ You have a great name.
Rufus is a great name.
Who gave you that name?
Your parents?
My parents, yeah.
Oh, really?
Well, no, my [E] mother_
My father's name is Loudon.
Loudon, that's also a good name.
But, so I didn't want to be the fourth, so they_
But they wanted an equally bizarre _ name, so they named me Rufus. _
Where are you from originally?
I'm from Montreal.
You grew up there?
Yes.
And your parents are somewhat also famous?
Well, they're like folk stars.
_ _ Folk stars.
_ Folk singers.
My mom's _ a great banjo player.
_ Wow.
My father, you know, whatever.
A banjoist.
Yeah.
What a great instrument.
What a strange instrument.
Yeah, it's very strange.
I wonder how she found_
It drives me up the wall.
So you grew up around all of this music?
Yeah.
My parents were always singing, and _ _ I _ [D#] was always singing too.
We're kind of like the Von Trapp family.
[B]
The Von Trapps, like in Sound of Music.
[N] Except there was only one of you, and there were like seven of them.
Were you a strange kid?
Yeah, no, I was very, very strange, because I was just always performing,
and always singing, and always wanting to be_
And my mother told me when I was _ a kid that _ I could be Annie _ [G#m] someday,
because sometimes [G] boys would play Annie on Broadway,
kind of like when men would play Shakespearean women.
So for about four years, I [E] thought I could be Annie on Broadway.
And she just never told me that I couldn't. _ _ _
That's both [G#m] encouraging _ and really confusing.
I think because my parents were performers,
[E] _
there was never any sense of normal_
Like [B] I have to get a [D] job.
Like my mother said, [B] don't ever get a job that will just [Em] ruin you.
Really?
Wow.
[F] So she just gave me an [D#] allowance, and I just would write songs all day.
[E] _
Write songs?
What made you write songs?
That's so great that you just sat down and wrote songs.
What made me write songs?
Because I think you're a great songwriter.
I really do.
I love your songs.
Thank you.
And to write a song, that is like some kind of genius.
Yeah.
It seems to be the place [F#] that I go where I'm just the [F] happiest,
_ and I'm [N] kind of _ the_
_ It's almost like the byproduct of my life.
Right.
It's the music.
Eat and [Fm] write songs.
[E] But I just sort of come out.
[G] Otherwise, [G#] I'm constipated.
There's a lot to [D] write about in your life,
like the fact that you're gay, which is so great.
I mean, I don't know.
The interesting thing about it is that I'm proud of being out and _ so forth,
but I do think it does make it a bit harder at [D#] times with the business.
_ [F]
There's sort of an odd [D] glass ceiling that you do [B] hit sometimes.
Whatever.
[C] One has to break through. _
So [F#] it's tough, but I think it's good in the [D#] end.
Yeah, it's very good.
Do you have any idols?
Do you have any people who really like_
Yeah, I have plenty of idols.
Well, I love_
All the great [F] composers are my [G#m] great idols
[F#m] because I'm a big Mahler [F] fan and a big Wagner fan and a big Verdi [Em] fan.
And if _ anything_
And Maria Callas.
I'm a huge Maria Callas junkie.
Is there anybody who you model yourself after?
_ Is there?
I don't know if there's [D#] anybody like_
Besides Edie [G#] Sedgwick.
_ _ I don't know.
Die really young.
There's [F] nobody I [D] really model myself after.
Nobody?
Nobody.
_ I mean, no that I_
If I could have any career, it would be like a great composer,
which is [Em] just that your work gets better,
and then you compose the greatest works on your deathbed in your 90s,
and you're [E] conducting thunder and stuff.
And you're just_
Like there's this great story about Sibelius where he was [E] conducting his last symphony,
[Em] his seventh symphony, and he was up there conducting,
and he [G#] just sort of _ drifted off and lost it.
And just died.
No, he didn't [F] die.
He just sort of got lost in his own music,
and [F#] the orchestra kind of stopped,
and [Em] he just sort of walked off stage.
That's kind of how I want to go.
I think he was_
You [F#] want to sing us a song?
Yeah, I can sing you a song if you want. You do?
Yeah, it's a bit early.
I know it's a bit early, but are you well enough?
Are you warm [D#] enough? Okay.
Okay.
You know, I'll try it.
Okay, shall we saunter over to the piano?
Yeah, we can do the piano.
_ This is called Grey Gardens, [F] which is another one of my obsessions. Grey Gardens?
[D] You mean about the Beal sisters?
Yeah, it's about_
About my favorite movie.
Yeah, it's my [F] favorite movie.
Who made it?
Do you remember who made that picture?
The Maisel brothers, right, exactly.
[A#] So_
I love a [B] documentary.
It's a combination of Grey Gardens and Death in Venice put into the same [F#] song.
What a great _ thing.
Okay.
Great thing.
[C#m] _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _
[C#] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
[C#m] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [F#] _
_ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F#] _ _ _ _ _ _
Honey, [C#m] I'm a roller [D] _
concrete [F#] _ _ clover [C#] _ _
Tatio, _ Tatio
_ _ _ [B] _
_ [F#] I'm bred to [C#m] your mother [D] _ simply [F#] _ _ over [C#] _
_ _ Tatio, oh _ [F#] yeah
_ _ _ _ But beware [C#m] my heart [D] can be [A#m] a pin in a [C#] shot Silver _ _ _ dragonfly
[B] _ _ _ [A#m] Tryna get [D#] my _ [G#m] _ [E] mansions green
_ _ _ [A] After I've [Bm] grey [E] _ [F#] gardens _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ [F#] _ _
In between [C#m] tonight [D] and my _ [F#] _ _ tomorrows
[C#] _ Tatio, _ every _ _ man _
_ [D#m] In between [C#m] tonight [D] I know [A#m] it's Tatio
_ [C#] _
Tatio, _ don't you [F#] _ _
fight
_ _ Honey, [C#m] can you hear [D] _ _ _ _ [A#m] me?
I've been _
[C#] _ dragging a _ _ _ dragonfly
[B] _ _ _ [A#m] Tryna [D#] get my [G#m] _ [E] mansions _ green _
_ [A] _ After I've [Bm] grey [E] gardens
[F#] _ _ Honey, _ _ _ [A#m] _
won't [D#] you hold [E] me _ _ tight?
_ [A] Get me through grey [F#] gardens _ tonight _ _
_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[F#] _ _ _ [C#] _ _ Tatio, _ _ Tatio
_ _ _ _ [D#] _
_ _ _ [Em] _ [Am] _ _ [D] _ _
_ [F#] _ _ _ _ [C#] _ Tatio, _ _ _ [F#] _ Tatio _ _
_ [A#] _ Tryna get [D#] my _ _ [E]
mansions _ green
_ _ [A] After [E] I've grey _ [F#] gardens _ _
_ _ _ [A#] Honey, won't [A#] you hold [E] me _ _ tight?
_ [A]
Get me through [Bm] grey [E] gardens [F#] _ _
_ _ tonight _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Tatio, Tatio _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Tatio, Tatio _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Tatio, Tatio _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
Hooray!
I had a moment.
Beautiful. _
_ Wow, that was like a poem.
[N] Oh, how wonderful.
Beautiful. _ _ _ _ _