Hitchcock Robyn

Hitchcock Robyn - Black Snake Album guitar chord

#

Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 17:41:14 -0500 (EST)

From: Terry Marks

Subject: h/robyn_hitchcock/Black_Snake_album.crd

Today I returned from lunch to find a

"thank you" from him -- a mug with a picture of Syd screened on one side!

The other side has  some guy (unrecognizable, at least to me) screaming,

with the words "The Anderson Council" circling his head... Chris (the

student aide) has no clue what this is all about -- a house he lived in in

British Columbia had a big crate of these mugs in the basement!

My guess is, a floyd cover band??? Anyone know?

@ALBUM: Black Snake Diamond Role

BLACK SNAKE DIAMOND ROLE

by

Robyn Hitchcock

@The Man Who Invented Himself

I met this man called Mr Barrett or something in the South Kensington

Subway playing this tune on an old guitar.  Anyway I gave him 50p and

he showed me how to play it.

{This tune is played on the joannah on CD so it sounds natuarally

enough a little different on guitar.  These are the chords but it's

worth hunting around to get those inversions right.

Lyrics from Mr Mellotron, Chords from Tin-Ear.

Intro

F   Gmin  Bb     C

F   Gmin  Bb     C   F

F       Bb              F

He came bursting out of nowhere

Bb                     F

like a sphere into the sky

Bb                       F

And he cast his light on everything

Gmin            Bb

it was like he never died

Bb                     F

And he landed right on target

Bb                     F

But the target rolled away

Bb                        F

And it left fim pointing nowhere

          Gmin              Bb

You could here the children say

Bb                   C                F       G#min

He's the fellow, the man who invented himself

Bb                  C                F              F

He's the fellow the man who invented himself

And it continues in the same way for the next verse, and then,

Bb                      F

Nobody knows where he's from

Bb                      F        

Nobody knows where he's gone gone gone

F2           C

But he's not here

The F2 chord looks like this  (it's still an F chord, just an inversion)

(X03311)

@SONG: BRENDA'S IRON SLEDGE

Intro:

D:-----2-2-2-0---0-------0-0-0------

A:-0-3---------3-----2-3-------3-2-0

A

We head downhill, my hands fly back

Our fingers freeze, our hair falls out, our hair falls out

Our fingers freeze, our hair falls out

The iron piston pumps and spouts

D

The steaming air as hot as sprouts

E           A             E

All aboard, Brenda's iron sledge

No one's on top, they're comfortable

They're sitting on a human chain, a human chain

They're sitting on a human chain

Their limbs compressed in icy slush

Of freezing in a raw meat groove

All aboard, Brenda's iron sledge

D                    A                E

Please don't call me Reg, it's not my name

The body's rear, a bucking sled

Which hits a tree and falls asleep, and falls asleep

Which hits a tree and that is that

The grasshoppers curl up and burst

And Brenda shovels on the wurst

All aboard, Brenda's iron sledge

Please don't call me Reg, it's not my name

@SONG: DO POLICEMEN SING?

The opening riff isn't really a chord,

but tabbed out I guess it would look like:

Bass plays low E...

Gtr. slides down from XXX9-11-X on beat 2,

Then X12XXX, and pull off on the A string to X02XXX.

The chord would be Em, and in both cases

the two notes are E and Bb, so let's

just refer to them as Hi and Lo, shall we?

Between couplets in the verse,

the Asus2 is just X02200, picked, with the

bass going up to B on beat 4.

   Hi       Lo           Hi         Lo

"O do policemen sing?" I heard a person cry...

    Hi      Lo          Hi              Lo  Asus2

"We can do anything!" I heard the force re- ply...

And so on until...the chorus:

B:      X24442

E:      X79997 (bass plays A)

D:      X57775 (bass plays G)

C#:     X46664

C#maj7: X46564

F#:     244322

D#m:    X68876

Bsus2               E              D

It's true becauzza...  Never argue with a rozzer...

D              C#         C#maj7

Never show him insolence...

F#           D#m

Confidence...

The next 5 measures are picked, but if they were chords

they'd be C#: 9-11-11-10-9-9, B: 799877, and B7: 797877.

Some might choose to play these all as 7ths if they

were playing them as chords.

     C#               B

'Cuz who supplies the evidence?

     C#               B

It's not your mother, or your lover,

B7

Or your best friend's dog...

...And back to Em and the Hi-Lo verse part.

The end section:

--------------------

--------------------

--------------------

--------------------

---2---1---2---1----

0-----------------3-    D (XX0232)

...Our law and or-der's never-never-never-never-never gonna break down

Repeat 3 times, and on the last repeat (remember there's

an extra "never"), end (on "Down") with a chord which

might be described as E5 (add Bb): 022300.

As for the outro, it starts with the same E5 (addBb) chord,

then switches to XX4442, and up to XXX775, XXX997, XXX9-12-10,

and XXX-9-11-9, as the song fades out.

--------------------------------------

@SONG: THE LIZARD

A            Em                 D7             C      G

You wear the lizard's shoes and afterwards you get confused

You wear the lizard's coat and afterwards you fail to float

You take the lizard's path but look who's lying in the bath

You wear the lizard's skin no man can be a god and win at all

You take the lizard's mask but look who's lying in the cask

And the clocks have stopped you'll find out what the lizard

dropped

You know the lizard's won but you can't work out how it's done

The lizard is your friend and will be to the very end of time

You lie beneath the stars the lizard knows how high they are

The stars are out of reach the lizard lingers on a beach

The stars are out of date the lizard had them on a plate

You vomit in the shed the lizard got there first he's dead now

@SONG: MEAT

E is played as [listen for rhythm] a sort of switch between E and A.

or as just a plain E, if you're into simplifying things.

E

It don't feel much like a home without a dog

It don't feel much like a pool without a frog

A                                         E

It don't feel much like a world without a girl

A                                        B      

It don't feel much like a girl without a human being

It don't feel much like a fish without a pond

It don't feel much like a fence with no beyond

It don't feel much like a church without a god inside

It don't feel much like a bank without a lot of money

B                                           E

Oh come on baby (doo-doo-doot) give me your meat

It don't feel much like a foot without a shoe

It don't feel much like a me without a you

It don't feel much like a train without a buffet car

It don't feel much like a bed when there's nobody on it

Ah swallow it

It don't feel much like a bath without a plug

It don't feel much like a hole without a drug

It don't feel much like a drug without a side effect

It don't feel much like an effect if you don't love nobody

Come on baby gimme your meat

@SONG: ACID BIRD

Intro:

D:-0--0-0-0----------------------------

A:---0-0-0-0---------------------------

D

Sucking on a tap that never dries

                                     A

Could you take it right between your eyes

G              D

Bending blood, bending blood

A

The father stood, the father's hood

D                 A              D              A

Like shadow on an acid bird that etched her way across a field

D  E    A

So long ago

Walking through the fields in summer heat

Look at all the creatures 'round your feet

Pumping blood, pumping blood

The mother's gaze, the mother gave

White ointment of an acid kiss that burned upon the lips she

gave you

So long ago, so long ago

G

Fun in the sun, luck in the bloodstream

A                              G

Shallow bodies writhing on the grass

G

Fun in the sun, hair in the slipstream

A                                  G

Tadpoles shooting through a hollow glass

Cutting out a silhouette in dreams

Everything is older than it seems

Son of blood, son of blood

The baby shakes, the baby snakes

That crawl across the acid rings that flicker from your

corpuscles

One sunny day, one sunny day

Fun in the sun everyone knows it

They could be as mellow as the hay

Fun in the sun everyone blows it

They grow up and instantly turn grey

Like shadow of an acid bird that etched its way across a field

So long ago, so long ago

@SONG: I WATCH THE CARS

* E:-0-0h3-0-3-5-3----------

E                                  *

I watch the cars go back and forth

I watch the cars go back and forth

I watch the cars go back and forth

A(5)

Sometimes south and sometimes north

E                                  *

I watch the cars

I hear them stopping down the street

I hear them stopping down the street

I hear the sound of stocking feet

A(5)

I wonder who they're going to meet

E                                  *

I'm getting drunk inside my house

I see the men inside their shells

I see the men inside their shells

A(5)

They go to prostitutes as well

Who never mind the way the smell

E                                  *

The prostitutes are paid for it

Alright!

I hear you're gonna try that too

I hear you're gonna try that too

I hear you're gonna try that too

A(5)

I wouldn't pay to go to you

I'm getting drunk inside my house again

I watch the cars go back and forth

I watch the cars go back and forth

I watch the cars go back and forth

A(5)

Sometimes south and sometimes north

E                                  *

I watch the cars

@SONG: OUT OF THE PICTURE

[I'm a bit unsure about the verse]

A              D                E

Don't you ever wonder 'bout the nowhere girl

Don't you feel sad or feel strange

D           A                 E

There is no escaping from the nowhere girl

A                  D            E            

She's never really truly out of range

D

And I'm walking out of the picture

E                    A E            D

Leaving everything behind except my mind

Don't you feel temptation for the nowhere girl

She can burn your hands and sting your heart

She knows it's too late for you to save the world

And you believe that there's still time to start

And I'm walking out of the picture

Leaving everything behind except your mind

D

She's not just a pretty face

            E

She's a big black hole as well

A                           D    

She swallows everything she sees

She's not of the human race

She's a creature out of hell

She's's a disease

You are just in time to see the nowhere girl

Settling her fingers 'round your brain

Saw away the taps and you're a brand new world

You'll never ever pass this way again

Walking out of the picture

Leaving everything behind except your mind

@SONG: CITY OF SHAME

E                     D

It was in the city of shame

E                        D

That I found I wasn't to blame

A(5)                B(7)

I was looking for a weird thing or two

A(5)                 B(7)

I discovered that it had to be you

It was in the city of fear

That I shouted 'Is there nobody here?'

Though the echo had the name on a ring

Still the echo wasn't called anything

D           A

La, la, la, la, la, la, la

E           A

La, la, la, la, la, la, la

A           E

La, la, la, la, la, la, la

A                   D

La, la, la, la, la, la, la

It was in the city of love

All the flesh I ate was never enough

Though I knew it wasn't good for my soul

My body hungered for the ultimate goal

It was in the city of spies

That I spoke with nothing but lies

When they set a trap for all you could feel

It's important that your mind is concealed

La, la, la, la, la, la, la

It was in the city of shapes

That she made love to several apes

She felt weird for a couple of days

Pretty soon she got used to their ways

It was in the city of fools

That she sold her beautiful jewels

Someone bought them and sold them again

Now they've been bought by several men

E           A

La, la, la, la, la, la, la

E           D

La, la, la, la

[repeat as needed]

@SONG: LOVE

D                         G

The sun is shining on the ground

C                          D

I see that nothing makes a sound

D                   C

I move invisible as air

G                           D

And choose the time to disappear

D       C                     D

Ah, ah, ah - I'm in love with you

The spirit started long ago

They've found somewhere they couldn't go

They spend their time just looking out

For those who never share a doubt

Ah, ah, ah, ah - they're in love with you

The seagull on the seeping sand

Can die but never understand

The oil that festers on our shore

Will cast a stain for evermore

Ah, ah, ah, ah - who's in love with that?

The gnomes are moving through the night

The sing and fiddle with delight

And we eat Weetabix and sing

About the joys that love can bring

Ah, ah, ah, ah - if they ever come

The sun is shining very hard

It melts both margarine and lard

But me I only dream of you

I hope that you are dreaming too

Ah, ah, ah, ah - I'm in love with you

Dancing On God's Thumb (3:40)

----------------------

Intro: [Soft Boys version]

e:-0----0-1-2-3----0-1-2-7-5-??-3-0-

[the ?? is either a 5 or a 3.  Kimberly plays it very fast and

very distorted, so I can't properly tell.  If you can, let me

know]

B(7)                             A(5)

I don't mind walking through the wind and the rain

I don't mind waiting where they cancel the train

But when I don't have love I stand and complain

       E                 D

I hate everything that I see

I don't mind waiting 'til the end of the world

'Cause in the Universe a womb I am curled

But Armageddon when the flag is unfurled

You know the first to fall out will be me

B(7)                  A(5)         G(3)      B(7)

We are all dancing on God's thumb

We are all dancing on God's thumb

I don't mind eating off the side of the plate

I don't mind jumping off the top of the gate

There's a solution if you're willing to wait and

Believe that it's worth waiting for

'Cause if you try to look for nobody else

You find it gets too much to live for yourself

You'll still be empty though you're crawling with wealth

And you're too fat to squeeze through the door

We are all dancing on God's thumb

We are all dancing on God's thumb

We are all dancing on God's thumb

There's no use preaching like you're gonna be saved

You cannot argue with a cross and a grave

It's just a question of the way you behave

If you wanna survive on your feet

We got a bunch of crippled looners in power

Who wanna treat us to a nuclear shower

I'd give my life for just a gun and an hour

You know I'd murder them out in the street

We are all dancing on God's thumb.  It's humming disco

Terry "The Human Mellotron" Marks

a013645t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us

Get this song at:  amazon.com sheetmusicplus.com

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