Open:
C - G/B - Am - G (2x's)
C G/B Am G
There's a kid out on my corner, hear him strumming like a fool
C G/B Dm F
Shivering in his dungarees, but still he's going to school
Dm F Dm G
His cheeks are made of peach fuzz, his hopes may be the same
F Dm G C
But he's signed up as a soldier out to play the music game
C - G/B - Am - G
C G/B Am G
There's fake patches on his jacket, he's used bleach to fade his jeans
C G/B Dm F
With a brand new stay-pressed shirt and some creased and wrinkled dreams
Dm F Dm G
His face a blemish garden, but his eyes are virgin clear
F Dm G C
His voice is chicken little's, but he's hearing Paul Revere
C - G/B - Am - G
C G/B Am G
When he catches himself giggling, he forces up a sneer
C G/B Dm F
Though he rather have a milk shake, he keeps forcing down the beer
Dm F Dm G
Just another folkie late in coming down the pike
F Dm G C
Riding his guitar, he left kid brother with his bike
C/G
And he's got Guthrie running in his bones, he's a hobo kid who's left his home
Dm Dm7
And his Beatles records and his Rollin' Stones, this boy is staying acoustic.
Dm F
There's Seeger singing in his heart, he hopes his songs will some how start
G C
to heal the cracks that split apart America gone plastic
Am
And now there's Dylan drippin' from his mouth
G
He's hitching' himself way down South
F
To learn a little black and blues
Dm Dm/C
From old street men who've paid their dues
Bb C
'Cause the knew they had nothing to loose, and knew it
Dm G
So they just got to it
Am
With cracked old Gibson's and red clay shoes
G
Playing 1-4-5 chords like good news
F
And cursed with skin that calls for blood
Dm Dm/C
They put their face and feet in mud
Bb C
But oh they learned the music from way down there
Dm G
The real ones learn it somewhere
C Em
Ah strum your guitar -- sing it kid
F Dm G
Just write about your feelings -- not the things you never did
C Em
Inexperience -- it once had cursed me
F Dm Gsus G - Gsus2 - G
But your youth is no handicap -- it's what makes you thirsty
Gsus G - Gsus2 - G
Hey kid
C G/B Am G
You can hear your footsteps as you're kicking up the dust
C G/B Dm F
And the rustling in the shadows tells you secrets you can trust
Dm F Dm G
The capturing of whispers is the way to write a song
F Dm G C5 Eb5 - F5 - C5
It's when you get to microphones the music can go wrong
C5 Eb5
You can't see the audience with spotlights in you eyes
F5 C5
Your feet can't feel the highway from where the Lear jet flies
Eb5 F5
When you glide in silent splendor in you padded limousines
G G5 - Bb5 - F5 - Bb5
Only you are crying there behind the silver screen
F5 Eb5
Now you battle dragons -- but they'll all turn into frogs
D5 G
When you grab the wheel of fortune -- you'll get caught up in the cogs
C
C5 Eb5
First your art turns into craft -- then the yahoos start to laugh
F5 C5
Then you'll hear the jackals howl 'cause they love to watch the fall
Eb5 F5
They're the lost ones out there feeding on the wounded and the bleeding
G
They always are the first to see the cracks upon the walls
C5 - Eb5 - F5 - G5 - C
G/B - Am - G
C - G/B - Am - G
C G/B Am G
When I started this song I was still thirty-three
C G/B Dm F
The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free
Dm F Dm G
Keats and Shelley too soon finished, Charley Parker would be
F Dm G C
And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me
C G/B Am G
Well just today I had my birthday -- I made it thirty-four
C G/B Dm F
Mere mortal, not immortal, not star-crossed any more
Dm F Dm G
I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore
F Dm G C
A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar
C
And I can't help being frightened on these midnight afternoons
Dm Dm7
When I ask the loaded questions -- Why does winter come so soon?
Dm F
And where are all the golden girls that I was singing for?
Dm F G Am
The daybreak chorus of my dreams serenades no more
Am
Yeah the minute man is going soft -- the mirror's on the shelf
G
Only when the truth's up there -- can you fool yourself
F/C
I am the aging jester -- who won't gracefully retire
E7 G
A clumsy clown without a net caught staggering on the high wire
Am
Yesterday's a collar that has settled around my waist
G
Today keeps slipping by me, it leaves no aftertaste
F/C
Tomorrow is a daydream, the future's never true
E7 A A7 - D
Am I just a fading fire or a breeze passing through
D F#
Hello my country
Bm Bm/A G G/F# Em A
I once came to tell everyone your story
D F# Bm Bm/A
Your passion was my poetry
G Em A
And your past my most potent glory
F# Bm G Gm
Your promise was my prayer
F#m Bm Bm/A
Your hypocrisy my nightmare
G Gm F#m Bm
And your problems fill my present
Em G Cmaj7
Are we both going somewhere?
C/G
C/G G C/G G C/G G
Step right up young lady -- Your two hundredth birthday make you old if not senile
C/G G Dm Dm7
And we see the symptoms there in your rigor mortis smile
Dm F Dm G
With your old folks eating dog food and your children eating paint
Dm Dm7 G C
while the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint
C Cmaj7 C6 Cmaj7
And while blood's the only language that your deaf old ears can hear
C Cmaj7 Dm
And still you will not answer with that message coming clear
Dm Dm7 G
Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream
Dm7 G C F
And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream?
F C
B-U-Y centennial sell 'em pre-canned laughter
G G
American perennial sing happy ever after
C
There's a dance band on the Titanic
G
Singing nearer my God to Thee
G7
And the iceberg's on the starboard bow
Am
Won't you dance with me
Am
Yes I read it in the New York Times
Gm
That was on the stands today
F
It said that dreams were out of fashion
Dm
We'll hear no more empty promises
Bb
There'll no more wasted passions
C
To clutter up our play
Am
It really was a good sign
Gm
The words went on to say
F
It shows that we are growing up
Dm
In oh so many healthy ways
Bb
And I told myself this is
G
Exactly where I'm at
C Bb A
But I don't much like thinking about that
Dm - F - G - A
Dm F
Harry -- are you really so naive?
Bb
You can honestly believe
G
That the country's getting better
A Dm
When all you do is let her alone
Gm Bb/F
Harry -- Can you really be surprised?
Eb Eb7
When it is there before your eyes
C
When you hold the knife that carves her
D Gm
You live the life that starves her -- to the bone
Cm Cm/Bb Cm/A Cm/G
But good dreams don't come cheap
D D/C Dsus2/A
You've got to pay for them
Cm Cm/Bb Cm/A Cm/G
If you just dream when you're asleep
D D/C Dsus2/A
There is no way for them
A#6 Gm G
To come alive -- to survive.
C
C5 Eb5
It is not enough to listen -- it's not enough to see
F5 C5
When the hurricane is coming on it's not enough to flee
Eb5 F5
It's not enough to be in love -- we hide behind that word
G
It's not enough to be alive when your future's been deferred
C
C5 Eb5
What I've run through my body, what I've run through my mind
F5 C5
My breath the only rhythm -- and the tempo is my time
Eb5 F5
My enemy is hopelessness -- my ally's honest doubt
G
The answer is a question that I never will find out
G5 - Bb5 - F5 - Bb5
A5
Is music propaganda -- should I boogie, Rock and Roll
G5
Or just an early warning system hitched up to my soul
F5
Am I observer or participant or huckster of belief
E7
Making too much of a life so mercifully brief
G - F (4x's)
C - G/B - Am - G (2x's)
C G/B Am G
So I stride down sunny streets and the band plays back my song
C G/B Dm F
They're applauding at my shadow long after I am gone
Dm F Dm G
Should I hold this wistful notion that the journey is worthwhile
F Dm G C
And tip-toe cross the chasm with a song and a smile
C G/B Am G
Well I got up this morning, I don't need to know no more
C G/B Dm F
In evaporated nightmares that had boiled the night before
Dm F Dm G
With every new day's dawning my kid climbs in my bed
F Dm G C
And tells the cynics of the boardroom your language is dead
C G/B Am G
And as I wander with my music through the jungles of despair
C G/B Dm F
My kid will learn guitar and find his street corner somewhere
Dm F Dm G
There he'll make the silence listen to the dream behind the voice
F Dm G C
And show his minstrel Hamlet daddy that there only was one choice
C Em
Ah strum your guitar -- sing it kid
F Dm G
Just write about your feelings -- not the things you never did
C Em
Inexperience -- it once had cursed me
F Dm Gsus G - Gsus2 - G
But your youth is no handicap -- it's what makes you thirsty
Gsus G - Gsus2 - G
Hey kid
C Em
Ah strum your guitar -- sing it kid
F Dm Bb
Just write about your feelings -- not the things you never did
Eb Bb
Dance band on the Titanic singing nearer my God to Thee
Bb7 Eb
The iceberg's on the starboard bow, won't you dance with me
Eb Bb
Dance band on the Titanic singing nearer my God to Thee
Bb7 Eb
The iceberg's on the starboard bow, won't you dance with me
[repeat and fade...]
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