There Was Only One Choice

        C             G/B         
There's a kid out on my corner, 
       Am             G
hear him strumming like a fool

    C               G/B       
Shivering in his dungarees, but 
   Dm                   F
still he's going to school

      Dm                 F        
His cheeks are made of peach fuzz,
      Dm               G
 his hopes may be the same

           F              Dm      
But he's signed up as a soldier 
      G              C
out to play the music game


C - G/B - Am - G


                C            G/B  
There's fake patches on his 
              Am                 G
jacket, he's used bleach to fade his
 jeans

         C                     G/B
With a brand new stay-pressed 
             Dm                   
shirt and some creased and wrinkled 
F
dreams

     Dm              F            
His face a blemish garden, but his
  Dm               G
 eyes are virgin clear

      F                Dm         
His voice is chicken little's, but
         G           C
 he's hearing Paul Revere


C - G/B - Am - G


           C               G/B    
When he catches himself giggling, 
     Am          G
he forces up a sneer

            C           G/B       
Though he rather have a milk 
             Dm              F
shake, he keeps forcing down the 
beer

 Dm            F              Dm 
Just another folkie late in 
            G
coming down the pike

  F          Dm              
Riding his guitar, he left kid 
     G              C
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

And his Beatles records and his 
                     Dm            
Rollin' Stones, this boy is staying
   Dm7
 acoustic.

          Dm                       
There's Seeger singing in his 
       F
heart, he hopes his songs will some 
how start

    G                              
to heal the cracks that split apart
    C
 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                        
From old street men who've paid 
               Dm/C
their dues

  Bb                               
'Cause the knew they had nothing to
             C
 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                            
They put their face and feet in mud
      Dm/C


    Bb                             
But oh they learned the music from 
     C
way down there

     Dm                    G
The real ones learn it somewhere


     C                          Em
Ah strum your guitar -- sing it kid

       F                         
Just write about your feelings -- 
           Dm              G
not the things you never did

     C                        Em
Inexperience -- it once had cursed 
me

     F                           
But your youth is no handicap -- 
Dm                    Gsus     G -
it's what makes you thirsty
 Gsus2 - G


    Gsus   G - Gsus2 - G
Hey kid


 C                   G/B     
You can hear your footsteps as 
           Am            G
you're kicking up the dust

           C              G/B 
And the rustling in the shadows 
              Dm              F
tells you secrets you can trust

       Dm           F            
The capturing of whispers is the 
Dm              G
way to write a song

      F                  Dm       
It's when you get to microphones 
     G           C5      Eb5 - F5 
the music can go wrong
- C5



C5                            
You can't see the audience with 
     Eb5
spotlights in you eyes

      F5                        
Your feet can't feel the highway 
        C5
from where the Lear jet flies

          Eb5                      
When you glide in silent splendor 
        F5
in you padded limousines

 G                                 
Only you are crying there behind 
                  G5 - Bb5 - F5 - 
the silver screen
Bb5



F5                          
Now you battle dragons -- but 
          Eb5
they'll all turn into frogs

          D5                       
When you grab the wheel of fortune 
                G
-- you'll get caught up in the cogs


C

           C5                      
First your art turns into craft -- 
          Eb5
then the yahoos start to laugh

             F5                  
Then you'll hear the jackals howl 
              C5
'cause they love to watch the fall

            Eb5                
They're the lost ones out there 
                   F5
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         
When I started this song I was 
Am            G
still thirty-three

     C              G/B           
The age that Mozart died and sweet
  Dm            F
 Jesus was set free

Continúa después del anuncio
Eliminar anuncios
            Dm                F   
Keats and Shelley too soon 
            Dm          G
finished, Charley Parker would be

          F             Dm        
And I fantasized some tragedy'd be
  G              C
 soon curtailing me


            C              G/B    
Well just today I had my birthday 
      Am             G
-- I made it thirty-four

       C           G/B       
Mere mortal, not immortal, not 
      Dm            F
star-crossed any more

                 Dm             F 
I've got this problem with my 
         Dm         G
aging I no longer can ignore

   F                  Dm       
A tame and toothless tabby can't 
     G              C
produce a lion's roar


        C
And I can't help being frightened on
 these midnight afternoons

When I ask the loaded questions -- 
          Dm             Dm7
Why does winter come so soon?

     Dm                            
And where are all the golden girls 
     F
that I was singing for?

       Dm           F          
The daybreak chorus of my dreams 
     G          Am
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                             
A clumsy clown without a net caught
                    G
 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                                
Am I just a fading fire or a 
             A       A7 - D
breeze passing through


  D         F#
Hello my country

Bm     Bm/A     G     G/F#    
I once came to tell everyone 
Em    A
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 
Step right up young lady -- Your
                   G             
 two hundredth birthday make you 
C/G          G
old if not senile

       C/G                G    
And we see the symptoms there in 
        Dm           Dm7
your rigor mortis smile

          Dm                F     
With your old folks eating dog 
              Dm             G
food and your children eating paint

            Dm            Dm7     
while the pirates own the flag and
            G           C
 sell us sermons on restraint


            C                Cmaj7
And while blood's the only 
             C6               
language that your deaf old ears can
Cmaj7
 hear

      C                Cmaj7      
And still you will not answer with
        Dm
 that message coming clear

         Dm                    Dm7
Does it mean there's no more 
             G
ripples in your tired old glory 
stream

          Dm7               G     
And the buzzards own the carcass 
         C           F
of your dream?


  F               C
B-U-Y centennial sell 'em pre-canned
 laughter

   G                               
American perennial sing happy ever 
           G
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       
But I don't much like thinking 
    A
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                             
You live the life that starves her 
           Gm
-- to the bone


     Cm         Cm/Bb      Cm/A  
But good dreams don't come cheap
     Cm/G


               D      D/C    Dsus2/A
You've got to pay for them

        Cm             Cm/Bb   
If you just dream when you're 
Cm/A     Cm/G
asleep

             D      D/C     Dsus2/A
There is no way for them

         A#6  Gm       G
To come alive -- to survive.

C

      C5                           
It is not enough to listen -- it's 
Eb5
not enough to see

             F5                    
When the hurricane is coming on 
  C5
it's not enough to flee

     Eb5                           
E|t's| not enough to be in love --
    F5
E| we hide behind that word 

      G
It's not enough to be alive when 
your future's been deferred

C

          C5                       
What I've run through my body, what
      Eb5
 I've run through my mind

     F5                            
My breath the only rhythm -- and 
   C5
the tempo is my time

    Eb5                       
My enemy is hopelessness -- my 
  F5
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      
So I stride down sunny streets and
      Am                 G
 the band plays back my song

            C             G/B     
They're applauding at my shadow 
    Dm         F
long after I am gone

          Dm                 F    
Should I hold this wistful notion 
           Dm           G
that the journey is worthwhile

       F               Dm         
And tip-toe cross the chasm with a
  G           C
 song and a smile


     C               G/B          
Well I got up this morning, I 
   Am              G
don't need to know no more

       C         G/B              
In evaporated nightmares that had 
  Dm               F
boiled the night before

      Dm                F       
With every new day's dawning my 
Dm                G
kid climbs in my bed

                F          
And tells the cynics of the 
    Dm              G        C
boardroom your language is dead


           C             G/B
And as I wander with my music 
                 Am         G
through the jungles of despair

    C              G/B            
My kid will learn guitar and find 
      Dm              F
his street corner somewhere

             Dm                 F 
There he'll make the silence 
          Dm                G
listen to the dream behind the voice

                F             Dm  
And show his minstrel Hamlet daddy
             G             C
 that there only was one choice


     C                          Em
Ah strum your guitar -- sing it kid

       F                         
Just write about your feelings -- 
           Dm              G
not the things you never did

     C                        Em
Inexperience -- it once had cursed 
me

     F                           
But your youth is no handicap -- 
Dm                    Gsus     G -
it's what makes you thirsty
 Gsus2 - G


    Gsus  G - Gsus2 - G
Hey kid


     C                          Em
Ah strum your guitar -- sing it kid

       F                         
Just write about your feelings -- 
           Dm             Bb
not the things you never did


 Eb                              
Dance band on the Titanic singing 
                   Bb
nearer my God to Thee

      Bb7                          
The iceberg's on the starboard bow,
                      Eb
 won't you dance with me


 Eb                              
Dance band on the Titanic singing 
                   Bb
nearer my God to Thee

      Bb7                          
The iceberg's on the starboard bow,
                      Eb
 won't you dance with me