From: william pilong
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 18:14:00 PDT
This is, I think, the most beautiful song ph has ever written. Some of the chords I'm not too sure of--so corrections are welcome. Again, many of the chords, the way I play the song, are inverted. This transcription comes mainly from "A Stranger Still" and "Live in Sydney". Occasional notes will be written in, chords are under the lyric.
D# C# F D# D# C# G# F
Letters in pencil, some of them as heavy as lead,
G# C# G# C#
F F D# C# C# F D# F C# A# G# F# G#
as dated as carbon, as black, as coal, but burning red
F# D#m F# G#
Clues faintly...
...as living, as dead.
F D# C# D# A#
And always that laugh
F#
F D# C# A#
that comes as though it's from pain:
F#
F D# C# D#
though I'm lashed to the mast
D#m
D# C# G# G# F A#
still it hammers round my brain.
F# G# Cm(sus4) A#m
Laughter...
...No, nothing matters very much.
A# A# A# C A# G# A# G# F#G#D#
So the siren song runs through the ages,
A#m G# F#
and it courses through my veins like champagne;
A#m F# G#
A# G# A# F# G# F F#
and with all the sweet kisses of addiction
A#m F# F#/C#
it's calling me to break my bonds again.
A#m G# Bm(no 5th)/G
A(no 5th)/G G#(no 5th)/G G(no 5th)/G
(Repeat last four chords twice with same tempo and then once with a very
different rhythm)
*Left hand notes: G B G E. Right hand notes: AABAGGG *
3 times
L.H.N.:G B G E R.H.N: AAEG. L.H.N.: G B D G
L.H: F's octave apart. R.H.: FFFED
G chord
4 times
(repeat * - * twice)
then descending right hand: A G A G G F# G F# F# F F# F F E F E
E D# E D# D# D D# D D C# D C# (this is played with some l.h.
chords, or just the first note in each section with the l.h.)
(this entire musical section, if it can make any sense at all, will make
sense only through listening to the recording on "Live in Sydney". Even
then there are probably things missing or mistakes)
THEN:
Future memory...
.
.
.
Still your laugh chills my marrow
F#
till I embrace it on my knees
F#
When the mast becomes a flagpole
D#m
Oh, what becomes of me?
F# G# Cm(sus4) A#m
G# A#m F# A#m F#
F D# B G# F D# B G# A#
Oh what becomes, oh what becomes of me?
A#m