Red Cotton

G  D
C  G

G  D
C  G


[Chorus 1]
    G       D      C          G
I'm cutting up her pure white dress
     G      D
That I dyed red
     C      G
That I dyed red
     G      D         C      
I'm putting scraps in cheap tin 
    G
lockets
     G      D        C      G
What time erases and memory mocks
     G         Bm       C     G
I'll send them over the ocean foam
E       Am Bm    C      D      
Right into those gentle European 
  G
homes


[Verse 1]
G                         Am
The slave ship "Blessing" slipped 
from Liverpool
        D          G          B
Over the waves the Royal Navy rules
Em                    Am
To go and plunder the Kingdom of 
Benin
      Em              B7          
Where certain history ends and 
     Em
shame begins

G                       Am
Dahomey traders paid in powder and 
shot
              D                 
Line up their prisoners and they 
 G                B
sell them in lots
Continúa después del anuncio
Em                        Am
They packed them tight inside those 
coffin ships
E        Am        Bm     C    
And they took them to the brand
              D                 
 new world of auction blocks and 
 G
whips


[Chorus 2]
    G       D      C          G
I'm cutting up her pure white dress
     G      D
That I dyed red
     C      G
That I dyed red
     G      D         C      
I'm putting scraps in cheap tin 
    G
lockets
     G      D        C      G
What time erases and memory mocks
     G         Bm       C     G
I'll send them over the ocean foam
E       Am Bm    C      D      
Right into those gentle European 
  G
homes


[Verse 2]
G                          Am
White is the sheet on your fine 
linen bed
                  D      G        
The blood stained red on each 
      B
cotton thread
Em                   Am
The merchants gather at St. George's
 Hall
E    Am       Bm       C       
To unveil the kneeling slave 
     D               G
who is carved upon the wall

G                           Am
So picture the scene on the old Salt
 House docks
                      D    G      
Where they loaded the iron 
        B
shackles and locks
  Em                             
Between a sandstone crocodile, a 
Am
barrel and a bale
E        Am      Bm       C    
You will see the nameless faces
           D            G
 they were offering for sale


[Chorus 3]
      G        D       C        
So, I sing the praises of God's 
G
glory
     G      D             C      
As a blue cetacean floats in the 
G
basement
   G    Bm         C      G
An elephant on the second story
E        Am        Bm     C
And they queue all day to see him
       D         G
In my American Museum

        G         D              
But the Lord will judge us, with 
C        G
fire and thunder
   G      D           C    
As man continues with all his 
   G
blunders
     G    Bm
It's only money
     C    G
It's only numbers
E     Am    Bm      C          
Maybe it is time to put aside 
     D          G
these fictitious wonders

    G      D
And man is feeble
C      G
Man is puny
G         D        C        G
And if it should divide the Union
G        Bm                
There is no man who should own 
C     G
another
E    Am       Bm    C           
When he can't even recognize his
 D              G
 sister and his brother