Poor Taylor Chords & Tabs
Poor Taylor (also known as Bad News)
Jack Johnson
Tabbed by Brian Noy
This song can be played with just C and Amin and it sounds
okay but Jack plays it C, C\B, Amin, F to the best of my
knowledge.
C C\B Aminor F C C\B Amin F
e--0----0----0-----1-- or -8---8----5---1--|
B--1----1----1-----1-- as -8---8----5---1--|
G--0----0----2-----2-- barre -9---9----5---2--|
D--2----2----2-----3-- chords -10--10---7---3--|
A--3----2----0-----3-- -10--10---7---3--|
E--------------------- -8---7----5---1--|
I play it with the regular chords otherwise there's too
much moving around. Those chords continue through the whole
song pretty much. That awesome lick that he plays between
verses goes something like what I tabbed below
b=bend /=slide h=hammer p=pull off
e-------------------------------------------------------|
B-------------------------------------------------------|
G-------------------------------------------------------|
D------------------------------------------1p0-0--------|
A--3-3--1h3-1h3-1h3-----------1-1-1-1/3-3-----3-3-------|
E-------------------3-1-1--1/3-------------------3-1-1--|
e----------------------------------------1--|
B----------------------------------------1--|
G----------------------------------------2--|
D---------------------3-3/5-5-5\3-2-0----3--|
A-----1---1---1-1/3-3----------------3-3----|
E--1h3-1h3-1h3------------------------------|
After that it's real hard to figure out so instead I play
a C and slide it up to D, F, and G like it does near the
of the song
C D F G
e--0---0-------0---|
B--1---3---6---8---|
G--0---0-------0---|
D--2---4---7---9---|
A--3---5---8---10--|
E------------------|
[ Tab from: https://www.guitartabs.cc/tabs/j/jack_johnson/poor_taylor_tab_ver_2.html ]
Lyrics:
She just wanders around
Unaffected by the winter winds air
She pretends that she's somewhere else
So far and clear
2000 miles from here
Taylor was a good girl
Never one to be late
Complain express ideas in her brain
Working on the night shift
Passing out the tickets
You're going to have to pay her
If you want to park here
Well Mommy's little dancer's
Quite a little secret
She's working on the streets now
Never going to keep it
It's quite an imposition
And now she's only wishin'
That she would have listened
To the words they said
Poor Taylor
Peter Patrick pitter patters on the window
And Sunny's silhouette won't let him in
And poor old Peter's got a nothin
Cuz he's been fallin
But somehow Taylor knows
Just where he's been
He thinks that singing on Sunday's gonna save his soul
Now that Saturday's gone
And sometimes he thinks that he's on his way
but I can see that his brakelights are on
When Taylor finds a better world
Taylor's gonna run the world
There's another version on the same demo CD that doesn't
sound like much anything else on the CD. He plays the
chords fairly muted throughout the song and sings the
first verse ("She just wanders around...2000 miles from
here") instead of playing that fancy little diddy. After
"his brakelights are on" he raps out a whole other verse.
Try to get this version, I noticed a lot of people on
Napster had this version but they all cut off before the
new verse. It goes something like this
She's such a tough enchalada
Filled up with nada(?)
Given what she gotta give to get a dollar bill
She used to be limber chicken
Time has been a ticken
Now she's finger licken to the man
with the money in his pocket
Flying in his rocket
Only stopping by on his way to a better world
When Taylor finds a better world
Taylor's going to run away
