This has always been on the top of my list of 'must learn' guitar songs.  I had different voicings
years ago that I was never totally happy with.  I recently compared them to the two transcriptions
at this site.  That led me to start from scratch to find the 'closest to record' transcription.
Thanks to Rob Whyte and Brian Canfield for their previous transcriptions of this song.  They helped
create a new light in approaching learning this song.

The key to duplicating Todd is finding the proper voicings.  Sometimes this involves basic chords
with non-root bass notes that 'shape' the chord.  The E/C# in the intro part is an example.  To
this end the effort was in finding the voicings for the intro and verse.  You can tweak the bridge
as you like substituting maj7 for major chords or m7 for minor chords where you see fit.

Please send comments to Steven Britt (stbtabs@yahoo.com).
-----------------------------------------------------

Chain Letter - The Ballad of Todd Rundgren

INTRO:

    G6     Dadd9/F#  Dmaj7add9   E/C#
  xx___o    xx___o    xxo__o    x___oo
  ||||||    ||||||    ||||||    |||x||
  ||||||    |||x||    |||xx|    ||x|||
  ||||x|    ||||x|    ||||||    ||||||    2X
  |||x||    ||x|||    ||||||    |x||||
  ||x|||    ||||||    ||||||    ||||||


VERSE:

E              Esus4 E5sus2 A      Bmsus4  C#m                    E       Esus4   E5sus2     A      Bmsus4    C#m
Don't take yourself  too    seriously                           o___oo   o___oo   o___oo   xx___o   xx___o   xx___o
                                                               |||x||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||
         Dadd9               C#m          G6        Dadd9/F#   |xx|||   |xxx||   |x||||   ||xxx|   ||||||   ||||||
There are precious few things worth hating nowadays             ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||x|  5||||x|
                                                               ||||||   ||||||   ||xx||   ||||||   ||xx||   ||xx||
   Dmaj7add9        E/C#                                       ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||
and none of them are me

     E              Esus4 E5sus2 A              Bmsus4  C#m     Dadd9
I was only trying to say   how    things used to be             xx___o
                                                               ||||||
       D              C#m          G6            Dadd9/F#     7||xxx|
'Til we grew up and we all went our separate ways               ||||||
                                                               ||||||
Dmaj7add9       E/C#         Esus4 E    A
Looking for our own paths to immor-tali-ty

INTRO

VERSE
This is how I thought I'd start my song,
and it seems a little silly when I think of it
but now I'm so far along
And no one really wants to know that he's wrong                  Asus4
That his ears can't really hear or he's blind a bit             xx___o
                                Esus4       E     Asus4  A     ||||||
Or that he's really weak when he thinks that he is strong       ||xx||
                                                               ||||x|
BRIDGE                                                          ||||||

Dmaj7          C#m7         F#         B
Now I'm in the middle and I just don't know                     (Use basic barre chord structures
                                                                through Bridge)
       Bm7         Gmaj7          Asus4 A     D     C#m7
If I'll make it any further if the words don't flow

B                Bbm7        C#            Ab                     C#       Ab      Abm      Emaj7
When you live in silence any sound is      dear                 x_____   x_____   x_____   xx____
                                                               ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||||||
        Abm                  Emaj7             F#     B       4|x|||x 11|x|||x 11|x|||x 11|||||x
But for those who don't, take heart because the end is near     ||||||   ||||||   ||||x|   ||||x|
                                                               ||xxx|   ||xxx|   ||xx||   |||x||
VERSE                                                           ||||||   ||||||   ||||||   ||x|||
This is the ending of my song
It has made me blind and deaf and weak but most of all
It shows you that I'm wrong
For you see that it's really twice this long
And if I should die tomorrow it will carry on

BREAK

A     E
Carry on  3X

VERSE
Carry on...