(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes

I bought My Aim Is True on vinyl back in the mid 80's and instantly became an Elvis Costello fan. I listened to his music for a few years and then got into other things. A student of mine recently asked to learn some of the songs from this album. I was completely amazed when I went back and listened to it for probably first time in at least thirty years. I had forgotten how much this album rocks! The sound of it is also so rich and incredible. The drums sound enormous. The guitar playing is another thing that really struck me. I definitely didn't appreciate how good the musicianship was when I first listened to this album in my teens. I couldn't believe how well I knew the album, could sing along to every song and remember every melody. The songs are incredibly strong from start to finish. There is no filler on this album, no sir.

My student chose to learn (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes first. Of course, we then went on to learn several others like Watching The Detectives, Pay It Back and Alison... This song is a lot of fun to play. It's pretty much all E, A and B with the exception of a G#m chord thrown in to spice things up. If you are not quite there with bar chords yet, try playing it capo 4 with C = E, F = A, G = B and Em = G#m. Here is the chord and structure chart (click on it to download a PDF):