Chords for Steve Poltz - Brief History of My Life

_ _ This is my homecoming _
It really is
_ So yeah, I was born here not even far from probably the tiki [E] and
When we moved the reason we moved from Halifax was because my dad woke up one morning
The snow it was one last time digging digging his car out of snow
He got really really pissed off and said we're going to California
He just put his finger on a map and said hmm Pasadena, California sounds warm Southern, California
And we drove across the country and I was just a young toddler and I was unceremoniously
Uprooted from Halifax and brought to Southern, California
Where we had a little house with a white picket fence where the weather was sunny every day
And [F#] I would pick weeds and listen to my dad listen to baseball on an AM radio
And there was a guy named Vin Scully who would call the games Vin Scully's just a beautiful beautiful
He's like a poet when he calls a game
And he would call these games and the Dodgers would be playing and my dad would explain the game of baseball to me and it
Was so cool having my dad do that and we went down to the courthouse because my dad studied to become a United States of
America citizen and he brought me to the courthouse and it was an everybody was scared
We were going to become communists and so they were really scared
There was a big red scare and we had to swear that we weren't going to join the Communist Party
And my dad would still explain baseball to me
We became citizens and then he said to me, but you can still be a Canadian and I wasn't worried about that
I was worried that I would have to revoke my Catholicism and go to hell by becoming an American that really scared me.
So
Once again baseball kept coming into play and they said, okay, you're gonna be an altar boy
You're gonna make your first communion at the Catholic Church
So I didn't have to revoke that so I made my first communion and then my mind my active
Imagination got involved and I was scared that when they said this host represents Jesus's body.
I wanted his leg, you know, I
Wanted the dark meat
So _ I freaked out thinking they were gonna be out of the leg, you know
And then my dad explained to me other baseball [E] announcers.
There was a guy named Jack Buck who was a voice of the Cardinals
He's also a poet and when Jack Buck called the game his voice sounded like it was soaked in whiskey and cigarettes
And he'd say and here come the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth inning
And I met him and he was the nicest man
He's since passed away and he had a book of poetry out and then my other uncle
worked up in Canada and he taught me about Ernie Harwell because he was a Detroit Tigers fan [D] because he was across the border in
[G] Canada and so it just went on and [D] on and on and this song is called a brief history of my life _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ _
We [B] first moved to the USA [A] all the way from Canada [D] Canada
We drove across the continent from Nova [A] Scotia to [D] Pasadena
[G] My sister and me [D] and my mom and [G] dad from the call to the sunny [A] south
[D] There were palm trees growing and it was not [A] snowing and I never did shut my [D] mouth _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ We drove on over to the courthouse in [A] downtown Los [D] Angeles
Put our hands on a Bible and we swore as a [A] family that we were not [D] communist
When [G] we drove away [D] I started to cry.
They said [G] what's wrong son?
Are [A] you sick?
[D] I said, I don't want to be an American.
I [A] want to be a
Catholic [D] [G] we talked
_ [A]
Hollywood and baseball [G] in the car
Voice of [A] in Scully it would [B] travel really I
[B] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _
_ Made my first communion in [A] st.
Rita's [D] Catholic Church
There was incense choking and a priest was [A] smoking was a choir up in the [D] perch
[G] My face got [D] red and my stomach felt [G] bad.
They said if you're gonna get sick [A] use a cup
_ [D] Well, I thought by the time that it was my [A] turn Jesus would be all [D] eaten up [G] we talked
[B] Hollywood
_ Baseball [G] in the car
Voice of [B] jackbuck [D] it would travel really
[Bm] My [D] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ allergies were bad, so we moved to [A] the desert to a city called [D] Palm Springs
We trick-or-treated at
Liberace's [A] house each finger had a diamond [D] ring
[G] We met Elvis Presley [D] in the middle of the summer and he [G] hugged my sister [A] for far too long
_ [D] _ Man I felt kind of weird, but I would have pimped her out [A] just to hear him [D] sing a song _ _
_ _ [G] We talked
_ [B] Hollywood _
Baseball in [G] the car
Voice of Ernie [A] Harwell [D] it would travel [C#m] really
[Bm] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ Now here I am a grown-up boy
[A] at home on the [D] 4th of July
staring out at the ocean and [A] the fireworks in the sky I
[G] Miss my friends who aren't around the ones who passed [A] away
_ Well, [D] I'm feeling kind of grateful [A] here on
Independence [D] Day we [G] talked
_ [A] Hollywood
baseball in [G] the car
The voice of [A] Jerry Coleman
[D] It still travels [Bm] really I _ [G] get [A] allergies
_ [D]
and asthma in [G] the yard
And no one ever [E] told me [D] growing up would be [B] so
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _