Peter Hammill - Handicap And Equality (chords-2)


Chord transcription by Jose Javier Glaria <jglaria@iies.es>, 1/9/97. 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.

A sad music and beautiful song (reminds me of Shingle Song). Easy to play.

I've read the Offir's transcription. It has a G instead of the first Em and a F#m instead of a the first D. I've compared and to me the D sounds clearly better, and I'm not so sure about the G. But maybe it's just my habit. I think the position of the chords on the lyrics is more exact in this my transcription.

Handicap And Equality (PH7)

Bm                               A
  All men are born equal at the moment they arrive . . .

Bm                                 A
 check the limbs and senses we require to survive.

               Em
But some come deaf and dumb and blinded,

           D
some have damage to their brains;

         Em
parents constantly reminded

              F#m                              Em
that they'll never play the normal children's games.

They may not be normal,

                             Bm
but they're people just the same.

[same]
If Christ had been bom defective to fulfil the Father's plan
would he be as easily accepted as God made man
or does the human value alter
in the crippled human frame?
Though the tongue[s] and fingers falter
must we shut them out and shut them up
and shut the case and whisper 'such a shame . . .'
That's how we shut them away.

[same beginning. See ending.]
Most of us are lucky, free from accidents of birth;
but their victims share our rights to the inheritance of earth.
For all their grunts, their stumps,
their tumours, their eternal wheelchairs
we're the freaks, we're the inhumans
if we close our eyes and turn aside, pretend

                               Em
that if we to they'll not be there...

                                         Bm
They've got to face it, so we've got to face it.

                      Em
Still they've got to live with it

                           Bm
In a world we supposedly share.



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