Goofus

Words & Music by William Howard, Gus Kahn & Wayne King
Recorded by The Carpenters, 1976 (#56)
Popularized by Wayne King, 1931


D     Am7        D         Am7     Cdim
I was born on a farm out in I - o - way

   G       Am7          G            Am7     Cdim
A flamin' youth, I was bound I would fly a - way

   D        Am7         D        Cdim   Am7    G     E7  Am7  Cdim
I packed my grip and I grabbed my sax  - o - phone.


 D           Am7           D         Am7     Cdim
Can't read a note, but I play an y - thing by ear

   G       Am7          G            Am7     Cdim
I made up tunes on the sounds that I used to hear

     E7                  A7   Em7      A
When I'd start to play, folks used to say,

  D7      Am7       D7/9       Cdim G
"Sounds a lit - tle 'Goof - us' to me."


Bridge:

G           Am7         D  Am7 G
Corn - fed chords ap - peal to me --

F#     G#m7      C#   G#m7  F#
I like rus - tic har - mo - ny.

F       Gm7       C    Gm7  F
Hold a note and change the key -- 

E7            A7
Hey, that's "Goof - us"

G        Am7        D  Am7   G
Not ac - cor - ding to the rules

F#     G#m7      C#   G#m7  F#
That you learn in mu - sic schools,

F       Gm7         C    Gm7   F
But the folks just dance like fools --

 E        B7       A7
They sure go for "Goof - us."


D     Am7          D              Am7     Cdim
Got a job, but I just could - n't keep it long

     G         Am7          G           Am7       Cdim
The lead - er said that I played all the mu - sic wrong

   D        Am7           D       Cdim Am7 G   E7  Am7  Cdim
So I stepped out with an out - fit of  my own.


 D        Am7         D         Am7          Cdim
Got to - geth - er a new kind of or - ches - tree,

    G       Am7             G               Am7       Cdim
And we all played just the same "Goof - us" har - mo - ny,

    E7              A7 Em7     A
And I must ad - mit we made a hit --

  D         Am7       D      Cdim G
"Goof - us" has been luck - y for me

Coda:

  D         Am7       D      Cdim G
"Goof - us" has been luck - y for me

  D         Am7       D       Am7  Fdim  D7  D+ Cdim G  
"Goof - us" has been luck - y                   for  me

Transcribed by Ron Hontz(Ronhontz@att.net). I had known of this song for a very long time, but it wasn't until Ron connected me with The Carpenters' recording of this one, I never had any idea that it even had lyrics.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.