F#m B
The lady in the fishing vest
F# B
Has dropped the gun
C#m
Who wears a fishing vest
A
When they're working at a liquor store?
C#m F#m B
I float up to the corner
c#m F#m
Just above the ice cream
B
And the frozen food
A G#m C#
I perch beside the surveillance
Camera...
[Interlude]
F#7 F#
A F#
Only days after the trial
E G#m
You could feel the tension rise
E
In the streets and in the rhythm
F# A
Of despair, of despair
A F#
It was war after a while
C#m
In each neighbor's tired eyes
G#m E
There was nothing to persuade them
F# A
To stand down, to stand down
A B
I float higher and higher
C#m F#m
Friendly with the clouds
B
That cover Southland...
[Interlude]
F# Bbm
Bbm D#m
I watch the tender skyline
G#
Dancing, oh the terror -
C# F#
On the long night
Bbm
On the long flight
G#
Blood, glass, burnt hair
D#
These angry armies
F# Bb D C#
Quick advancing in position:
F# D#
On the rooftops, in the culverts
F#
Stores are sacked while there's no one there
Bbm G#
Now two kinds of light
C#
From fires and fixtures
F#
They fill the sky
C# G# C#
It was never so bright when I was young
F#
I was too young to die
Bbm D#m
On TV sets, in houses
G#
Effortlessly done in fancy colors
C# F# Bbm
All the righteous, all the newsmen
G#
Speak of end times
D# F#
Why should they give a fuck
Bb Dm
Some angry little black girl took a bullet?
C# F# D#
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy
F#
On the ones who've done the crime
Bbm G#
Now two kinds of light
C#
From fires and fixtures
F#
They fill the sky
C# G# C#
It was never so bright when I was young
F#
I was too young to die
[Interlude]
Bbm D#m G# C# F# Bbm G# D# F#
Bb Dm C# F# D# F#
Bb D#
If I float even higher
C F#
Pattern and procession are uncovered
C# D# Bm
Flood and fire, flood and earthquake
D#
Keep folks unmoored
Bb D# C
And the occasional celebrity car chase
F#
Woo woo woo woo!
C# D# E F#
Just to keep God, Just to keep God from getting bored, from getting bored
Bbm G#
Now two kinds of light
C#
From fires and fixtures
F#
They fill the sky
C# G# C#
It was never so bright when I was young
F#
I was too young to die
[Interlude]
F# Bb C G C A F#m E C#m B
A Em A C C Dm Em F F G G
Gm Dm Am
When my grandma was a young woman East St. Louis
Em Bm
She thought the town was no good to us
F Am
She took a Greyhound just as far as it could take her
Em
Felt her maker in the waves
D
You know, how God moves through us
[Interlude]
Dm Am Em Bm F#m Am
C D Dm
I was six years old when we followed
Am
My mother was twenty-two
Em Bm
The light was magic, the light was true
F
She thought we'd moved
Am
Beyond a sharecropper's debt
Em D
But we were just a pawn in the accuser's bet
F Am
Nobody reads from the Book of Job
G Dm
At the church where me and my grandma go
F Am
Nobody sees the trouble I know
G C
But I know that trouble's gonna find me
Dm Am Em Bm F#m Am
C D Dm
Three years later on a Thanksgiving
Am
The light turned bitter
Em Bm
My grandmother didn't know what hit her
F Am
We got a chill from the cold white sun
C
Momma found herself staring
D
At the barrel of a gun
Dm Am
That weren't enough, my uncle died too
Em
Shot through the chest back in East St. Louis
F#m Am
So one fine day my grandma lost two
Em
Took me in her arms and said
D D
It's just me and you
F Am
Nobody reads from the Book of Job
G Dm
At the church where me and my grandma go
F Am
Nobody sees the trouble I know
G C
But I know that trouble's gonna find me (x2)
G# F C# C
It'll find me, it'll find me, it'll find me, it'll find me (x6)
G# F C#
it'll find me, it'll find me, it'll find me
C Fm C# (x2)
Bbm C G#
So when I say that my untimely death
C#
Was something certain
F#
What I mean is that these tragedies
Bbm G#
Are a kind of a family tradition
D# F# Bb
So when I walk into the liquor store
Dm C#
That morning, bright and angry
F# D#
In a daydream of a boyfriend
F# Bb
I was fifteen
D B
Pick up a bottle of orange juice
G#m
And put it into my backpack
Gm Dm
Head toward the counter with dollar bills
B G#
And she accuse me of stealing that
F C#
She pull my sweater and so I hit her
Bb B
Put down the bottle don't want no trouble
C# G#
Now two kinds of light
C#
From fires and fixtures
F#
They fill the sky
G# C#
It was never so bright when I was young
F#
I was too young to die
C# G#
Now two kinds of light
C#
From fires and fixtures
F#
They fill the sky
G# C#
It was never so bright when I was young
F#m
I was too young to die
G# G#m C#m B A F#m
A
I suppose it's no surprise
F# C#m G#m
To find myself about to die
E
But how long that silver moment
F#
From the bullet
A
To the floor
That right there was a lifetime
E Bm F# A C#
La da da da da, da da da da
