Peter Hammill - Bareknuckle Trade (chords)


Chord transcription by Mikayel Abazyan mikayelabazyan@yahoo.com


Playing tips

In this powerful song that concludes the album you need to be 
ready to attack with the sequence of chords, created by doing 
chromatic runs up and down from g on 3rd (open) string to g on 
5th string with your fingers. At least this is how I noted it 
down on that piece of paper.


Dm                               Am
  And when you feel you can't go on

Dm                             A
  what kind of laurels do you look to? 

C
  Sometimes we get what we want, 

Bb
  sometimes we take a good hook too. 

Dm                                Am
  Once you thought you were so strong...

C(2=3)                             C+g
  some young pretender came and shook you. 

C                             Bb
  Now there's a lesson to be learned: 

C
  we must respect what is gone 

Bb                                        Am
  and still expect there'll be something more,

Am+f               Am+g  
but there's a tab left to pay 

Bb                                  Dm+a Dm+g Dm   Dm(1-0)
  for the experience we're gaining day   af - ter day

         Bb 
as our knuckles are grazed 

        Am
by the marks that we made 

          Dm(1=0)       Dm
with the tools of the trade.


A telegraph is on its way 
that might explain my every action. 
Sometimes we get what we want 
and then forget what we came here for. 
From fitness to decay 
we trade in opposite attractions. 
There are still lessons to be learned 
and when we get what we want 
we find it less than we might deserve.
Now I'm a little bit lost, 
not for the first time I'm here in some disarray 
and returning in spades 
are the hands that I've played 
with the tools of the trade.


      Dm (keep base chord Dm but picture the difference with fingers by picking the notes chromatically from g on 3rd string)
If I learned my lesson well 
I've got time to buy and sell with the tools of the trade.

"What do you want? What do you get?
What do you want? What do you expect?" 
What you want, what you want's not what you get. 

Dm                   C   Dm                C                           Dm
  The tools of the trade,   look what you made with the tools of the trade. 

                         C                          Dm
But what price has been paid for the tools of the trade?

And here's a message in my hands,
though I'm not sure I can decode it. 
Sometimes we get what we want 
and yet still don't know quite what that is. 
Timidity be damned . 
hang on to that towel, never throw it. 
Still there are lessons to be learned: 
if we don't get what we want 
at least we get to request the bill, 
carrying on 
until the last one is standing still in the game.
With quick breath we all pay 
for the fists that we made:
these, the tools of the trade.




Russian Peter Hammill / Van der Graaf Generator Page
Sergey Petrushanko hammillru@mail.ru, 1998-2024