Night Life

Words & Music by Willie Nelson, Walter Breeland & Paul Buskirk
Recorded by Rusty Draper, 1963 (#57)


          C               C7
When the evenin' sun goes down,
          F                 Fm
You will find me hangin' 'round;
        C          Am            F      G     
Oh, the night life,  it ain't no good life,  

         C       Am    Dm7    G7
But it's my life.
 

       C              C7
Many people just like me

         F              Fm
Dreamin' of old used-to-be's;

         C          Am             F      Fm   
Oh, the night life,    it ain't no good life,     

         C        F  Fm   C  C/B C7
But it's my life.


Bridge:

 C     Am        C                   C7
Listen   to the blues that they're playin'

 F7              Fm7       C      Am7  Dm7  G7
Listen what the blues are sayin'


        C             C7
Life is just another scene

             F               Fm
In this old world of broken dreams

        C            Am             F         Fm
Oh, the night life,    it ain't no good life


First Time:

          C       F   Fm7   C  C/B  C7
But it's my life


Last Time:

         C        E7    A7
But it's my life

G        C          Am          F         G
Oh, the night life    ain't no good life

              C9  C    F   Fm   C  G7   CM7
Oh, but it's my life.

This song has reached the country music charts numerous times since introduced in 1963. Among the more successful versions were Ray Price (1963, # 28); Claude Gray (1968, # 31); Willie Nelson with the Nashville Brass (1980, # 20), B. J. Thomas (1986, # 59) and as the flip of "Jukebox Saturday Night" by Roy Clark in 1986.

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.