Chord transcription by Jose Javier Glaria <jglaria@iies.es>, 17/10/97. Comments and corrections welcome, though fast response not promised.
Notation: Modifications to the nominal chord by indication of the string (1 is high E) and fret. Examples: E(3-0) would be Em. Em(2-3) would be Em7.
When a chord is played on a different fret to the nominal (the lowest), I write it the first time as in this example: G on 3rd fret= G(f3). From there on, it's played on that new fret until another fret change is indicated.
Faint-Heart And The Sermon
Bm
With my face drained of colour
A E
and my brain of blood
E D
like Billy Budd
D A Bm
I'm lashed to the grating;
[same as 1st]
with senses growing duller
and with quaking heart
I make a start
at temperature equating
Dm F Em
and my lungs suck useless air.
[same as 1st]
Like paraplegic dancers
in formation team
my understanding seems
hiidebound in its movements,
[same as 1st]
contemplating answers
that could break my bonds-
to be half wrong
would be, in me, improvement...
Dm F Em
but my comprehensive faculties are impaired.
Am C
And it seems absurd, but now all I've heard [learnt]
F Em
fades in empty words and is worthless
Am C
as the Human Laugh rocks the cenotaph
F Em
but the joke is half-true, and mirthless.
Em
Trying to trace a reason
D A
from the spinning words
G
but all I've heard
D Em
seem at odds with their meanings,
Am C G Am [short instrumental]
Em
phonetically pleasing
D A
but delivered in [with] such haste
G
that in their place
Em
my mind commences screaming.
Am C
On the verge of belief I crash onto the reef
F Em
and a cynical thief steals my senses,
Am C
so I cling to the pew with dimensions askew,
F F#
and recognition refuses present tenses.
Bm D
All the lives of the saints demonstrate that my faint
G Bm F#
is a minor complaint, but the end is
Em
nowhere in sight,
Em C G A# Am D# Bm A#
why can't I find me a way to go_ o?
A# F
I don't want to die in the nave,
G# D#
but I know it may be with me some day
A# F
so I've got to find a way I can save up
G# D#
my energies, and find a cause to pray
F# C# F C
to something for something
A# A#(2-4)(=A#sus4) A# F A# F A# Cm A#... [smooth]
to which I can give my creed...
( (D# F)x3 (C# D#)x3 )x2 (C# D#)x3
D# A#
I'd gladly succumb to the wave,
C# G#
if I thought the water taught a way to light;
D# A#
I'd gladly succumb-I'm not brave,
D# F C# D#C# G# A#
and it's easy to believe what the preacher says
A# Cm D# F D#A# Cm
except for the conflict raging between my head
A#
and my brain.
G#
I don't want to die, but just the same-
A#
some day...
Bm
Waiting for that moment
A E
that I know will come
D
when I'll have to run
A Bm
and find another sermon...
Bm
Everyman and Norman
A E
and the talking priest-
D
still [well], I am at least
B Bm
holding all the doors open.
Dm F Em
Inside me all outside is shared.
Am C
As the cracked bells peal it all seems unreal
F Em
but the seventh seal stays unbroken
Am C
and the Offertory plate tenders no escape-
F F#
still I refuse to scrape up a token
Bm
of esteem for these false
D
alleyways of the course;
G D F#
I must try to divorce sense from sensing.
Em
Tell me again,
Em C G A# Am D C#
tell me the way to go.
C# Fm
So when I talk to myself
D#m A#
although I take good care to listen
B F#
my heart grows ever more faint-
A# A#(2-1) A# A#(2-1) ...
there's something missing?