Verse 1:

E5         C5         D5         G5
Chicago is where the woman downstairs

A5                 B5         E5
Starved herself to death last summer

(Pattern repeats throughout verses)

Her boyfriend Ted ate hotdogs and wept
With the grey rats out on the fire escape
In a thrift store chair I drank cases of beer
And dreamed of lying down on the L-tracks
The trains roared by under smoke grey skies
Lake Michigan rose and fell like a bird

Chorus:

             C5    D5                   G5
And when the wind screamed up Ashland Avenue

    C5                D5       G5
The corner bars were full by noon

        C5            D5                  G5
And the old stewbums sliding down their stools

A5                  B5                E5
Ate boiled eggs and fed beer to their dogs


Verse 2:

The woman downstairs lost all her hair
And wore a beret in the laundry room
I borrowed her soap and bought her a coke
But she left it on the dryer
She died in June weighing 82
Her boyfriend went back to New York
The cops wandered through her dusty rooms
One of them stole her TV

Chorus