Cave Nick - Henrys Dream Album guitar tab
The Chords to Henry's Dream (mute 1992) by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Compiled as accurately as possible (but I'm not infallible so corrections are
welcomed!) by Andy Field July 1995.
Andy Field
(andyf@cogs.susx.ac.uk)
@ALBUM: Henry's Dream
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
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@SONG: PAPA WON'T LEAVE YOU, HENRY
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Well,this one is in the key of F but is played with a Capo at the first fret as
far as I can gather.
INTRO:
Capo
|-*-|---|---|--
|-*-|---|---|--
|-*-|---|---|--
|-*-|---|-4-|--
|-*-|---|-3-|--
|-*-|---|---|--
|-*-|---|---|--
|-*-|---|---|--
|-*-|---|---|--
|-*-|---|---|-4
|-*-|---|-3-|--
|-*-|---|---|--
You can get the rhythm from the record. bssically you play the top chord above (an Fm)
and just slide your 4th finger up one fret and back down again in time with the record.
****************
Fm (same pattern as intro)
I went out walking the other day
The wind hung wet around my neck
My head it rung with screams and groans
>From the night I spent amongst her bones
I past beside the mission house
Where that mad old buzzard, the reverend,
Shrieked and flapped about life after your dead
Well, I thought about my friend, Michel
How they rolled him in linoleum
And shot him in the neck
A bloody halo, like a think-bubble
Circling his head
And I bellowed at the firmament
C
Looks like the rains are hear to stay
And the rain pissed down upon me
Bb G# G Fm
And washed me all a - way
Saying
Fm
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, Boy
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, Boy
Well, the road is long
And the road is hard
C
And many fall by the side
But Papa won't leave you, Henry
C Bb G# G Fm
So there ain't no need to cry
Fm
And I went on down the road
He went on down the road
And I went on down the road
He went on down the road
Repeat above for second verse/chorus
*****
(at the end of various phrases in this bit Blixa plays two notes
Bb (3rd string 5th fret) and G# (4th string 6th fret). He puts a lot
of vibrato on both notes. You can slot them in where appropriate.
Fm
And I came upon a little house
A little house upon a hill
And I entered through, the curtain hissed
Into the house with its blood-red bowels
Where wet-lipped women with greasy fists
Crawled the ceilings and the walls
They filled me full of drink
And led me round the rooms
Naked and cold and grinning
Until everything went black
And I came down spinning
I awoke so drunk and full of rage
That I could hardly speak
A fag in a whale-bone corset
Draping his dick across my cheek
And its into the shame
And its into a guilt
And its into the fucking fray
And the walls ran red around me
A warm arterial spray
Saying
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, Boy
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, Boy
Well, the night is dark
And the night is deep
And its jaws are open wide
But Papa won't leave you, Henry
So there ain't no need to cry
Repeat verse/chorus structure over the last verse/chorus.
This version represents the live seeds version more than the Henry's dream version because the HD
version has more pronounced keyboard parts which embellish what the guitar does. Still this is
what the guitarists play believe it or not!!
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@SONG: I HAD A DREAM, JOE
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Cm F
I had a dream
D
I had a dream
Gm
I had a dream
Cm F Bb
I had a dream, Joe
-------- Gm
I had a dream, Joe
Eb D
You were standing in the middle of an open road
Gm
I had a dream, Joe
Your hands were raised up to the sky
Eb D
And your mouth was covered in foam
Gm
I had a dream, Joe
Eb D
A shadowy Jesus flitted from tree to tree
Gm
I had a dream, Joe
Eb D
And a society of whores stuck needles in an image of me
Gm
I had a dream, Joe
Eb D
It was Autumn time and thickly fell the leaves
Gm
And in that dream, Joe
Eb
A pimp in seersucker suit sucked a toothpick
D Cm
And pointed his finger at me
Cm F
I had a dream,
D
(I had a dream)
Gm
I had a dream,
Cm F Bb
I had a dream, Joe
Repeat over other verses Choruses.
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@SONG: STRAIGHT TO YOU
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Intro
G# / Gm
G# Gm
All the towers of ivory are crumbling
G# Gm
And the swallows have sharpened their beaks
G# Bb Eb G#
This is the time of our great undoing
Eb G#
This is the time that I'll come running
G# Gm Fm
Straight to you
G#
For I am captured
G# Gm Fm
Straight to you
G#
For I am captured
Bb Eb
One more time
G# / Eb / G# / Fm / G# / Bb /
G# Gm
The light in our window is fading
etc.
G# Bb Gm G#
Gone are the days of rainbows
G# Bb Gm G#
Gone are the nights of swinging from the stars
Eb G#
For the sea will swallow up the mountains
Eb G#
And the sky will throw thunder-bolts and sparks
G# Gm Fm
Straight at you
G#
But I'll come a-running
G# Gm Fm
Straight to you
G#
But I'll come a-running
Bb Eb
One more time
repeat verse pattern over last verse.
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@SONG: BROTHER, MY CUP IS EMPTY
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Riff
-----------------
-----------------
-----------------
-----------------
-------2--3^--2--
-0--3------------
Em
Brother, my cup is empty
And I haven't got a penny
Am
For to buy no more whiskey
Em (Riff - tab)
I have to go home
Em
I am the captain of my pain
Tis the bit, the bridle,
The trashing cane
Am
The stirrup, the harness
The whipping mane
Em
The pickled eye
The shrinking brain
O brother, buy me one more drink
I'll explain the nature of my pain
Am
Yes, let me tell you once again
Em (Riff)
I am the captain of my pain
Rpt over subsequent verse/chorus
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@SONG: CHRISTINA THE ASTONISHING
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D
Christina the Astonishing
Gm
Lived a long time ago
She was stricken with a seizure
D
At the age of twenty-two
They took her body in a coffin
Gm
To a tiny church in Liege
Where she sprang up from the coffin
D
Just after the Agnus Dei
She soared up to the rafters
Gm
Perched on a beam up there
Cried "The stink of human sin
Eb D
The stink Is more that I can bear"
Eb Bb G# Gm
Oh, oh, ohohoh, ohoh- oh oh Rpt
Eb Bb G# Gm D
Oh, oh, ohohoh, ohoh- oh oh, oh
Repeat over subsequent verses.
(there is actually no Guitar on this track on the record
everything is played on a keyboard)
--------------------------
@SONG: WHEN I FIRST CAME TO TOWN
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INTRO:
E |---|---|---|x
B |---|---|---|x Standard Chord tab - numbers relate to fingers
G |---|---|---|o 'x' means the string isn't played
D |---|-*-|---|2 'o' means the string is played 'open'.
A |---|---|-*-|3
E |---|---|---|x
E |---|---|---|x
B |---|---|---|x
G |---|---|---|o
D |---|---|---|o
A |---|---|-*-|3
E |---|---|---|x
These two chords are 'picked' one string at a time from the A string down to the open G.
i.e. you pick the three notes in the first chord, remove one finger and pick the three
notes of the second chord (I will refer to this as the 'C Pattern'). This pattern is repeated over and over until the line "oh lord how quickly, they changed their tune' over which you play (with the same 'plucking' pattern as before) - I shall call this > the 'F pattern');
E |---|---|---|x
B |---|---|---|x
G |---|-*-|---|2
D |---|---|---|x
A |---|---|-*-|3
E |-*-|---|---|1
E |---|---|---|x
B |---|---|---|x
G |---|---|---|o
D |---|---|---|x
A |---|---|-*-|3
E |-*-|---|---|1
Then change back to the first pattern for the beginning of the next piece of lyric.
i.e.
C pattern
When I first came to town
All the people gathered round
They bought me drinks
F pattern C Pattern
Lord, how quickly they changed their tune
rpt over next lyrics;
When I first came to town
People took me round from end to end
Like someone may take round a friend
O how quickly they changed their tune
Suspicion and dark murmurs surround me
Everywhere I go they confound me
As though the blood on my hands
Is there for every citizen to see
F
O sweet Jesus
C
There is no turning back
Gm Eb
There is always one more town
Cm F
A little further down the track
C
And from my window, across the tracks
I watch the juicers burn their fires
And in that light
Their faces leer at me
F C
How I wish they'd just let me be
C
When I first came to town
Their favours were for free
Now even the doors of the whores of
F C
this town Are closed to me
Repeat these basic chorus/verse patterns through the rest of the song. Should be easy if you just follow the record.
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@SONG: JOHN FINN'S WIFE
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Fm
Well the night was deep and the night was dark
And I was at the old dance-hall on the edge of town
Some big ceremony was going down
Dancers writhed and squirmed and then,
Came apart and then writhed again
Like squirming flies on a pin
In the heat and in the din
Yes, in the heat and in the din
I fell to thinking about brand new wife of mad John Finn
Well, midnite came and clock did strike
And in she came, did John Finn's wife
With legs like scissors and butcher's knives
A tattooed breast and flaming eyes
And a crimson carnation in her teeth
Carving her way through the dance floor
And I'm standing over by the bandstand
Every eye gaping on John Finn's wife
Yeah, every eye gaping on John Finn's wife
Gm / Cm / Gm / Cm / Gm / Cm / F
Fm
Now John Finn's wife was something of a mystery
In a town where to share a sworn secret was a solemn duty
I had brass knuckles and a bolo knife
Over near the bandstand with John Finn's wife
She got perfumed breasts and raven hair
Sprinkled with wedding confettis
And a gang of garrotters were all giving me stares
Armed, as they were, with machetes
And the night through the window was full of lights
Winking and awatching at John Finns' wife
Winking and awatching at John Finns' wife
Next came the cops, all out on the town
But it don't look like no trouble there
As they had for the bar in their lumpy suits
And I slip my hand between the things of John Finn's wife
And they seemed to yawn awake, her things
It was a warm and very ferocious night
The moon full of blood and light
And my eyes grew small and my eyes grew tight
As I plotted in the ear of John Finns' wife
Gm / Cm / Gm / Cm / Gm / Cm / F
Fm
Enter John Finn in his shrunken suit
With his quick black eyes and black cheroot
With his filled-down teeth and a hobnail boot
And his fists full of pistols in his pockets
Aiming at me and aiming at his wife
The band fall silent fearing for their lives
And with fear in my guts like tangled twine
Cause all I got is brass knuckles and a bolo knife
And mad John Finns' wife is all
And the three of us walk out of the hall
Now the night bore down upon us all
You could hear the crickets in the thickets call
And guns did flare and guns did bawl
And I planted my bolo knife in the neck
Of mad John Finn. I took his wretched life
Now I'm over near the bandstand
Every hand moving on John Finns' wife
Every hand moving on John Finns' wife
Fm Bb
And John Finns' wife
F
Took all the flowers down
Gm
>From her hair
Cm F
And threw them on the ground
Bb
And the flies did hum
F
And the flies did buzz around
Gm
Poor John Finn
Cm F
Lying dead upon the ground
Bb
Lying dead upon the ground
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@SONG: THE LOOM OF THE LAND
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Fm
It was the dirty end of winter
G#
Along the loom of the land
Eb C#
When I walked with sweet Sally
C# Fm
Hand upon hand
Fm
And the wind it bit bitter
G#
For a boy of no means
Eb C#
With no shoes on his feet
C# Fm
And a knife in his jeans
rpt
Fm Eb
O baby please don't cry
Fm
And try to keep
Eb C#
Your little hand upon my shoulder
Fm
Now go to sleep
repeat verse/chorus pattern over remaining words.
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@SONG: JACK THE RIPPER
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Gm / / Fm / Gm /
Gm Fm / Gm
I got a woman
Gm Fm Gm
SHe rules my house with an iron fist
Gm Fm/Gm
I got a woman
Gm Fm Gm
She rules my house with an iron fist
Dm
She screams out Jack the Ripper
Cm Gm
Every time I try to give that girl a kiss
Repeat over rest of song.
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