Last Day I Knew What To Do - Tift Merritt

Tift Merritt Chords Tift Merritt Lyrics

Last Day I Knew What To Do chords

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[Intro] F C G F C G [Verse 1] G Broken payphone in West LA G I tried to call you last night G Wrote your name in the glass real slow G And I started to cry D Haunted like a souvenir C Lost all the way through F C The last day I knew what to do G That was a long time… F C The last day I knew what to do G That was a long time ago [Interude] F C G [Verse 2] G Let me tell you how I miss your face G I’ve got to quit this scene G Everybody’s got a vodka drink G Nobody says what they mean D They'll chase you out of you out of your own life C Straight up the avenue F C The last day I knew what to do G That was a long time… F C The last day I knew what to do G That was a long time ago [Guitar Solo] F C G F C G F C G [Verse 3] G Funny I just keep outliving G All I could not live without G Put on the shirt I stole from you G And the night falls like doubt D C Long way from that county road where we made love all afternoon F C On the last day I knew what to do G That was a long time… F C On the last day I knew what to do G And that was a long time ago F C That was the last day I knew what to do G And that was a long time ago [Outro] F C G F C G F C G F C G F C G ============================

How to play "Last Day I Knew What To Do" [Chords]
on acoustic guitar.

Song Overview

Key: G major | Capo: none | Difficulty: gentle-beginner

This Guitar Lesson walks you through every corner of Tift Merritt’s 2025 sleeper single, a long-mislaid track finally released on July 25, 2025 as the lead tease for her upcoming collection Time and Patience. Tempo clocks a brisk but laid-back 130 bpm.

Chords Used

G 320003
D xx0232
C x32010
F 133211 (swap to Fmaj7 xx3210 if the barre feels cruel)

Strumming Pattern — “down-home swing”

Think 4/4 heartbeat:

D   D  U  U  D  U

Count it “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”, dropping the pick a shade stronger on beats 1 & 3. If you crave extra shimmer, let the up-strokes brush only the thinnest two strings.

Sections Breakdown

Intro (4 bars) – F │ C │ G│ … twice. Relax, let that F resolve like sunrise.
Verse 1
```
G  │  … repeat x4  
D  │  C  │  F  │  C  │  G
```
Slide the third finger from G to D to glue the shift; keep wrist loose.
Interlude – one quick F │ C │ G loop; inhale, exhale.
Verse 2 – identical changes; focus on lyric phrasing over rigid tempo.
Solo – same as Intro; if you’re not soloing, stay on chords and mute lightly.
Verse 3 + Tag – repeats, then outro rides the Intro figure until fade.

Common Mistakes

White-knuckle barre F—roll thumb center-back, nudge elbow toward ribs.
Letting tempo rush after the Interlude; use foot taps to anchor.
Over-strumming: this folk-rock breeze asks for dynamics, not thunder.

General Tips

Standard tuning; phosphor-bronze 12s give Merritt’s smoky warmth.
A touch of plate reverb at 25 % mix mimics the album ambience.
Practice the G-D hop in isolation—eight slow reps before full run-through.

Song Facts

Merritt cut this tune during the original Tambourine sessions in 2003, produced by George Drakoulias at L.A.’s Sound City, yet it fell to the vault floor. Two decades later the tape resurfaced while curating rarities for Time and Patience, due Aug 29 2025 on One Riot Records. The track features long-time road mates Zeke Hutchins on rim-shot drums and Jay Brown’s upright bass droning a fifth below the root in choruses, giving that cinematic ache. Listeners flooded socials within hours; Merritt herself confessed on Instagram that the song “feels like opening a letter I wrote to my future self.” The lyric video—shot on grainy Super 8 wandering Venice Beach phone booths—was uploaded to her official channel, clocking 100 k views in 72 hours. Critics at Americana UK called it “a flashlight into the emotional basement beneath Tambourine.” Worth noting: the pre-chorus melody subtly quotes the rising six-five cadence from “Good Hearted Man,” forging a hidden thread across her catalogue.

Song Meaning

Verse 1 drifts through a busted payphone on Pico, a metaphor for severed lines and hollow connections. The glass-writing image freezes time—the act of naming love while watching it smear. Chorus centers on the phrase “last day I knew what to do,” a lament for the moment certainty fled. Verse 2 shifts to an overcrowded bar where every vodka- breath buries honesty, spotlighting performative social masks. The avenue pursuit depicts life steam-rolling identity. Verse 3 turns rural; memory of a county-road rendezvous contrasts the city static, underscoring distance between past intimacy and present blur. Overall, the song maps the geography of disorientation—urban, emotional, temporal—while quietly asking: how long can a heart live on yesterday’s compass?

Comparisons to previous works

Where 2004’s “Good Hearted Man” fought for devotion with gospel-soul swagger, this new cut embraces vulnerability, no horns, only room-tone and tremolo guitar. The yearning palette recalls 2012’s “Traveling Alone,” yet the narrative eye feels older, a weary cousin to 2002’s “Bramble Rose.” Harmonically, the I-V-IV loop echoes “Stray Paper” but the tonic F in the chorus injects a Mixolydian shade unheard since “Virginia No One Can Warn You.” Merritt’s evolution thus bends from youthful defiance to reflective ache, and this track plants its flag midway on that arc.

Questions and Answers

Do I need the full-barre F?: No—swap to Fmaj7 (xx3210) and the song still blooms.
Best practice tempo?: Start at 90 bpm, inch to record pace 130 bpm over a week.
Capo tricks?: Capo 3 and play in E shapes if you crave lower string tension.
What pick suits the feel?: 0.73 mm nylon adds flex; stiff celluloid sounds brittle here.
Any lyrical Easter-eggs?: The county-road line nods to Merritt’s hometown Raleigh backroads.

May this little Tutorial light your path from first strum to final lingering G—keep the faith, keep the pulse, and remember: every chord change is a small act of finding your way back home.

Tift Merritt CHORDS

Tift Merritt LYRICS