Capo 2nd fret

Standard (EADGBE)

Hope that helps)

Intro & verse riff:

 Step out the front door like a ghost

 into the fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white.

 And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view

 of the crumbling difference between wrong and right

 I walk in the air between the rain, through myself and back again

 Where? I don't know

 Maria says she's dying. Through the door, I hear her crying

 Why? I don't know

  Round here we always stand up straight

  Round here something radiates

Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand

She said she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis

She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land

Just like she's walking on a wire in the circus

She parks her car outside of my house Takes her clothes off,

Says she's close to understanding Jesus

She knows she's more than just a little misunderstood

She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous

  Round here we're carving out our names

  Round here we all look the same

  Round here we talk just like lions

  But we sacrifice like lambs

  Round here she's slipping through my hands / / Oh...

  Sleeping children got to run like the wind Out of the lightning dream

  Mama's little baby better get herself in Out of the lightning

She says, "It's only in my head."

She says, "Shhh...I know it's only in my head."

But the girl on the car in the parking lot

says: "Man, you should try to take a shot

Can't you see my walls are crumbling?"

Then she looks up at the building she says she's thinking of jumping

She says she's tired of life; she must be tired of something.

  Round here she's always on my mind

  Round here I got lots of time

  Round here we're never sent to bed early

  Nobody makes us wait

  Round here we stay up very very very very late

  I can't see nothing, nothing around here

  You catch me if I'm falling, you catch me if I'm falling

  Will you catch me 'cause I'm falling down round here

I said I'm under the gun round here

I'm innocent, I'm under the gun round here

I can't see nothing, nothing round here.

CHORDS:

Note the A chord in the verse. At times, if you sing it by yourself, it

will sound like it should be an Am, but I assure you that it should

definitely be an A. If you play it as Asus2, it might make things easier.

Intro

  Start tearing the old man down

 Run past the heather and down to the old road

 Start turning the grain into the ground

 Roll a new leaf over

 In the middle of the night there's an old man

 Treading around in the gathered rain

 Well mister if you want to walk on water

 Could you drop a line my way

Chorus

  Omaha

 Somewhere in middle America

 Get right to the heart of matters

 It's the heart that matters more

 I think you'd better turn your ticket in

 And get your money back at the door

Verse 2

Start threading a needle

Brush past the shuttle that slides through the cold room

Start turning the wool across the wire

Roll the new life over

In the middle of the night there's an old man

Threading his toes through a bucket of rain

Hey mister you don't want to walk on water

You're only going to walk all over me

Chorus

Bridge chords

x 4

Verse 3

Start running the banner down

Drop past the color come up through the summer rain

Start turning the girl into the ground

Roll a new love over

In the middle of the day there's a young man

Rolling around in the earth and rain

Hey mister if you're going to walk on water, you know

You're only going to walk all over me

Chorus

x 2

Bridge chords

x 2

CHORDS:

  sha la la la la la la uh huh...

 I was down at the New Amsterdam staring at this yellow-haired girl

 Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation with this black-haired flamenco dancer

 She dances while his father plays guitar. She's suddenly beautiful

 We all want something beautiful I wish I was beautiful

 So come dance this silence down through the morning

  sha la la la la la la la yeah uh huh...

 Cut up, Maria! Show me some of them Spanish dances

 Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones

 Believe in me Help me believe in anything

 (cause) I want to be someone who believes

 Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales

 Stare at the beautiful women

 "She's looking at you. Ah, no, no, she's looking at me."

 Smiling in the bright lights Coming through in stereo

 When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely

 I will paint my picture Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray

 All of the beautiful colors are very very meaningful

 (you know) Gray is my favorite color I felt so symbolic yesterday

 If I knew Picasso I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

 Mr. Jones and me look into the future

 Stare at the beautiful women

 "She's looking at you. Uh, I don't think so. She's looking at me."

 Standing in the spotlight I bought myself a gray guitar

 When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely

 I will never be lonely

 I will never be lonely

 I want to be a lion Everybody wants to pass as cats

 We all want to be big big stars, but we got different reasons for that.

 Believe in me because I don't believe in anything

 and I want to be someone to believe, to believe, to believe.

 Mr. Jones and me stumbling through the barrio

 Yeah we stare at the beautiful women

 "She's perfect for you, Man, there's got to be somebody for me."

 I want to be Bob Dylan

 Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky

 When everybody loves you, son, that's just about as funky as you can be.

 Mr. Jones and me staring at the video

 When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me.

 We all want to be big stars, but we don't know why, and we don't know how.

 But when everybody loves me, I'm going to be just about as happy as I can

be.

 Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars.....

CHORDS:

(*) The following fill is used at a couple of points in the song,

marked with an asterisk.

-- PERFECT BLUE BUILDINGS -- Counting Crows

From: Ken McLeod

(NB You will notice that some lines in some verses have an Am at the end

of them, and others don't. A general guide is, if the words stop on

the Bb chord, then stay on Bb, and don't play Am)

Intro pattern

repeat 2x)**

 Just down the street from your hotel, baby

 I stay at home with my disease

 And ain't this position familiar, darling

 Well, all monkeys do what they see

 Help me stay awake, I'm falling...

Down on Virginia and La Loma

Where I got friends who'll care for me

You got an attitude of everything I ever wanted

I got an attitude of need

Help me stay awake, I'm falling...

Chorus

  Asleep in perfect blue buildings

  Beside the green apple sea

  Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby

1.|

  ** 2.|

  Try to keep myself away from | me | (myself and) me

| |

It's 4:30 A.M. on a Tuesday

It doesn't get much worse than this

In beds in little rooms in buildings in the middle

of these lives which are completely meaningless

Help me stay awake, I'm falling...

(CHORUS)

Instrumental

(each chord is held for a bar)

I got bones beneath my skin, and mister...

There's a skeleton in every man's house

Beneath the dust and love and sweat that hangs on everybody

There's a dead man trying to get out

Please help me stay awake, I'm falling...

(CHORUS) x 3

-- ANNA BEGINS -- Counting Crows

From: Ken McLeod

Corrections by Paul Hutchinson.

(verses Ams2 x02200 - G 320003)

My friend assures me, "It's all or nothing."

 I am not worried, I am not overly concerned

My friend implores me, "For one time only,

 make an exception." I am not worried

Wrap her up in a package of lies

Send her off to a coconut island

I am not worried, I am not overly concerned

With the status of my emotions

"Oh," she says, you're changing

But we're always changing

It does not bother me to

(bridge

022000 -

x32000 -

x54000)

 Say this isn't love

 Because if you don't want to talk about it then it isn't love

 And I guess I'm going to have to live with that

 But I'm sure there's something in a shade of grey

 Or something in between

 And I can always change my name if that's what you mean

[2nd verse]

My friend assures me "It's all or nothing"

But I am not really worried I am not overly concerned

You try to tell yourself the things you try to tell yourself

To make yourself forget, I am not worried

Bridge

"If it's love," she said, "then we're gonna have to think about the

consequences."

She can't stop shaking, I can't stop touching her and..

(Chorus

320033 -

  x32033 - Am7s4 x02233 -

xx0232 -

xx2033)

  This time when kindness falls like rain it washes her away

  And Anna begins to change her mind

  "These seconds when I'm shaking leave me shuddering for days"

  And I'm not ready for this sort of thing

[3rd verse]

But I'm not gonna break

And I'm not going to worry about it anymore

I'm not going to bend, and I'm not going to break and I'm

not going to worry about it anymore

It seems like I should say, 'As long as this is love...'

But it's not all that easy so maybe I should

Snap her up in a butterfly net

Pin her down in a photograph album

I am not worried - I've done this sort of thing before

Bridge

But then I start to think about the consequences

Because I don't get no sleep in a quiet room and..

Chorus

This time when kindness falls like rain it washes me away

And Anna begins to change my mind

And every time she sneezes I believe it's love

and Oh Lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing

She's talking in her sleep

It's keeping me awake

And Anna begins to toss and turn

And every word is nonsense but I understand and

Oh lord I'm not ready for this sort of thing

Her kindness bangs a gong

It's moving me along

And Anna begins to fade away

It's chasing me away it disappears and

Oh lord, I'm not ready for this sort of thing

TAB:-

Verse figure

This appears in the second verse - the first half of the first verse has

no guitar (the bass carries the accompaniment) and for the second half of

it, the guitar plays only the first 2 notes over the Ams2 chords. Repeat

throughout.

Bridge

Repeat throughout.

Chorus

-- TIME AND TIME AGAIN -- Counting Crows

From: Ken McLeod

Corrections by Paul Hutchinson.

NB You should play the tab rather than chords over the verse, but if

you do play chords, use these - F/C x33210 C x32010

 I wanted so badly Somebody other than me

 Staring back at me But you were gone, gone, gone

 I wanted to see you walking backwards

 And get the sensation of you coming home

 I wanted to see you walking away from me

 Without the sensation of you leaving me alone

Chorus

  Time and time again Time and time again

  Time and time again I can't please myself

Intro pattern x 2

 I wanted the ocean to cover over me

 I wanna sink slowly without getting wet

 Maybe someday, I won't be so lonely

 And I'll walk on water every chance I get

(CHORUS)

 So when are you coming home Sweet angel?

 You leaving me alone? / All alone?

 Well if I'm drowning darling, you'll come down this way on your own

Intro pattern x 2

 I wish I was traveling on a freeway

 Beneath this graveyard western sky

 I'm gonna set fire to this city

 And out into the desert we're gonna ride

(CHORUS)

(SOLO) - Same chords as chorus.

(CHORUS)

There is a second guitar in the song which plays fills and the solo

at the end. During verse 1, from the first 'I wanted to see' onwards,

Over the bridges before the 2nd and third verse, and during the third

verse and the second half of the second, it plays the following,

Solo

-- RAIN KING -- Counting Crows

Note: the timing of the words to the chord changes is approximate,

because the singer uses very elastic phrasing.This is how I do it.

Verse

 When I think of heaven

 Deliver me in a black-winged bird

 I think of flying down into a sea of pens and feathers

 And all other instruments of faith and sex and God

 In the belly of a black-winged bird.

 Don't try to feed me

 I've been here before

 And I deserve a little more

Chorus

 I belong in the service of the Queen

 I belong anywhere but in between

 She's been crying and I've been thinking

 And I am the Rain King

Verse

 And I said mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone?

 I can't go outside

 I'm scared I might not make it home

 I'm alive, I'm alive

 But I'm sinking in

 If there's anyone at home at your place, darling

 Why don't you invite me in?

 Don't try to bleed me

 I've been there before

 And I deserve a little more

Chorus

 I belong in the service of the Queen

 I belong anywhere but in between

 She's been lying and I've been sinking

 And I am the Rain King

Bridge

 Hey, I only want the same as anyone

 Henderson is waiting for the sun

 Oh, it seems night endlessly begins and ends

 After all the dreaming I come home again

repeat

  2x here

Verse

 When I think of heaven

 Deliver me in a black-winged bird

 I think of dying

 Lay me down in a field of flame and heather

 Render up my body into the burning heart of God

 In the belly of a black-winged bird

 Don't try to bleed me

 I've been here before

 And I deserve a little more

Chorus

 I belong in the service of the queen

 I belong anywhere but in between

 She's been dying and I've been drinking

 And I am the Rain King

Intro

D Gmaj7 x 4

 Take the way home that leads back to Sullivan Street

 Cross the water and home through the town

 Past the shadows that fall down wherever we meet

 Pretty soon I won't come around

Chorus

  I'm almost drowning in her sea

  She's nearly fallen to her knees

 Take the way home ba, ba, ba, ba

Take the way home that leads back to Sullivan Street

Where all the bodies hang in the air

If she remembers, she hides it whenever we meet

Either way now, I don't really care, cause I'm gone from there

Chorus

Take the way home that leads back to Sullivan Street

I'm just another rider burned to the ground, come tumbling down

Chorus

  I'm almost drowning in her sea

  She's nearly crawling on her knees

  It's almost everything I need

  I'm down on my knees I'm down on my knees

  I'm down on my knees I'm down on my knees

 Down on my knees

[Ken sent me an article that was posted a while back: - sv]

Just to expand a little further, while playing the 'D' chord during the

verses, it sounds like he may be occasionally pulling off the 1st string

(2nd fret), then hammering on again for the next strum.

Here's an attempt to tab the the way I'm currently playing it, with bass

notes added for the piano chord part (sounds ok to my ears, although I

haven't worked it out to see if it's correct.) Your mileage may vary.

Feel free to jump in and correct me, show me a different way, etc.

V = pluck bass notes together

/ = strum top three strings, alternating up & down strums

Take the way home that leads back

to Sullivan Street ...

In the change from D to D4, your index finger moves from the G string

down to the A string, then back. Of course, this whole sequence isn't

strictly repeated over and over... sometimes there are the little

piano runs in between, and so on.

-- GHOST TRAIN -- Counting Crows

From: Paul Hutchinson

NB The verses of this are a bit harmonically strange in that, like Round

Here and Time and Time Again, the guitar is not playing chords during

the verses, and so the bass carries the song rather a lot. However, I

get the impression that the verses are based on Dm the whole way

through, with the bass guitar playing Ds and Fs (and a G just before

the first verse). This should make the song horribly boring for you if

you're trying to play it by yourself without a bass guitarist, but

them's the breaks.

On the album, the guitar and some other strange instrument are messing

about with the following notes during the verses - listen to the tape

Intro

|

 I took the cannonball down to the ocean

Across the desert from sea to shining sea

I rode a ladder that climbs across the nation C/G

Fifty million feet of earth between the buried and me

 "How do you do?"

 She said, "Hey, how do you do?"

 She buys a ticket cause it's cold where she comes from

She climbs aboard because she's scared of getting older in the snow

Love is a ghost train rumbling through the darkness C/G

Hold on to me darling I've got nowhere else to go

 "How do you do?"

 She said, "Hey, how do you do?" hey...

|

  Yeah.

|

|

|

 I took the cannonball down to the ocean

Watched the diesel disappear beneath the tumbling waves

Love is a ghost train howling on the radio C/G

"Remember everything." she said, "when only memory remains."

 "How do you do?"

 She said, "Hey, how do you do?"

 "How do you do?"

 She said, "Hey, how do you do?"

Chords used:

-- RAINING IN BALTIMORE -- Counting Crows

From: Ken McLeod

Corrections by Paul Hutchinson

 This circus is falling down on its knees

 The big top is crumbling down

 It's raining in Baltimore fifty miles east

 Where you should be, no one's around

  I need a phone call

  I need a raincoat

  I need a big love

  I need a phone call

These train conversations are passing me by

And I don't have nothing to say

You get what you pay for

But I just had no intention of living this way

I need a phone call

I need a plane ride

I need a sunburn

I need a raincoat

  And I get no answers

  And I don't get no change

  It's raining in Baltimore, baby

  But everything else is the same

There's things I remember and things I forget

I miss you, I guess that I should

Three thousand five hundred miles away

But what would you change if you could?

I need a phone call; Maybe I should buy a new car;

I can always hear a freight train; If I listen real hard

And I wish it was a small world

Because I'm lonely for the big towns

I'd like to hear a little guitar

I think it's time to put the top down

I need a phone call

I need a raincoat

I really need a raincoat

I really, really need a raincoat

I really, really, really need a raincoat

I really need a raincoat

-- MURDER OF ONE -- Counting Crows

From: Steve Vetter

Corrected by Paul Hutchinson

lyrics from cs.uwp.edu

Intro

|

 Blue morning Blue morning

 Wrapped in strands of fist and bone

 Curiosity, Kitten,

 Doesn't have to mean you're on your own

 You can look outside your window

 He doesn't have to know

 We can talk awhile, baby

 We can take it nice and slow

 All your life is such a shame, shame, shame

 All your love is just a dream, dream, dream

Are you happy when you're sleeping?

Does he keep you safe and warm?

Does he tell you when you're sorry?

Does he tell you when you're wrong?

I've been watching you for hours

It's been years since we were born

We were perfect when we started

I've been wondering where we've gone

All your life is such a shame

All your love is just a dream

I dreamt I saw you walking up a hillside in the snow

Casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there counting crows

 One for sorrow Two for joy, Three for girls and four for boys

 Five for silver Six for gold and Seven for a secret never to be told

There's a bird that nests inside you

Sleeping underneath your skin

When you open up your wings to speak

I wish you'd let me in

All your life is such a shame

All your love is just a dream

Open up your eyes

You can see the flames of your wasted life

You should be ashamed

You don't want to waste your life

 I walk along these hillsides In the summer 'neath the sunshine

 I am feathered by the moonlight falling down on me

 Change, change, change

NB This figure appears and is played constantly from

'I walk these hillsides' onwards.

(Intro)

(1st Verse)

[Bouncy

  ]

Albert's always sincere, he's a sensivitive type

His intentions are clear, he wanna be well-liked

Better think of nothing, all are we anything (???)

Better to be better than to be anything

 And Albert's vision is blooming uncontrolled

 All his wings are slowly sinking

(Chorus)

 And the world begins to disappear

 The worst things come from inside here

 And all the king's men reappear

 For an eggman, on and off the wall

 Will never be together again

(2nd Verse)

Einstein down on the beach staring into the sand

It's everything he believes in has been shattered

What you fear in the night in the day comes to call anyway-ay

We all get burned as:

(Bridge)

 One more sun comes sliding down the sky

 One more shadow leans against the wall

(Chorus)

 Albert's waiting in the sun

 On a field (?) American

  For the cause of some inflated form of hit and run

(Solo)

(Bridge)

(Chorus)

  Albert's fallen on the sun

 Cracked his head wide open

(Chorus x 2)

(Ad lib outtro)

  etc

No never be together again

No no never never never again, uh huh

What you fear in the night etc..

  ? x22442

Intro riff

 In the still water she lies down

 Shaking in the press of sunlight

 We rolled into Lexington

 She shakes off the drop of daylight

 Water beading up her chest

 Bleeding down between her knees

 Rivers in Kentucky flow

 Between the bluegrass wavy seas

 But oh, Marjorie

 Twists the knife once more inside of me

Breathless with anticipation

Baited breathers set their hooks

Tuck their heads beneath the high grass

And lie and wait beside the brooks

For infants pushing slowly through

Frustration leading back along

The alleys of a childhood

Will not release us willingly

But oh, Marjorie

Sticks the knife in while I heard the sea

Solo

  ? [repeat]

Dust me off and shut me down

And dream of where I haven't been

Close the door inside my heart

Stuck in the south Atlantic wind

I have hollow eyes

Haunting only to myself

Even so, I can't stop calling

This great big hollows in my self

I took the train form California

To the far side of the continent

Woke up in Kentucky

Where a wedding was about to end

I looked up at Anna

She turned back to look at me

It's best to kill the ones that matter

Render blind the ones who see

But oh, Marjorie

Takes the blade and walks away from me

Oh, Marjorie

Love like blood is pouring out of me

Oh, Marjorie

My heart won't stop bleeding over me baby

[solo over F#m and B?]

Oh, I can't shut it in

It's got far too many doors to block the wind

Oh, I can't shut it in

It's got far too many doors to block the wind

: x02220 -

: 022100 -

: 320003 -

: xx0323-

The - chords are barre chords.

Intro.: -

 Wasted in the afternoon

 Waiting on a train

 I woke up in pieces and Elizabeth

 Had disappeared again

I wish you were inside of me

Hope that you're OK

I hope that you're resting quietly

I just wanted to say

Chorus

Good, Goodnight, Elizabeth

Goodnight Elizabeth, Goodnight

Good, Goodnight, Elizabeth

Goodnight, Elizabeth, Goodnight

We couldn't all be cowboys

So some of us are clowns

Some of us are dancers on the midway

Roam from town to town

Well I hope that everybody

Can find a little flame

I say my prayers and I set myself one fire

And I walk out on the wire, once again

I said

Chorus

Well I wait for you in Baton Rouge

I miss you down in New Orleans

I wait for you while she slips in something comfortable

And I miss you when I'm slipping in between

If you wrap yourself in daffodils

I will wrap myself in pain

And If you're the Queen of California

Baby, I am the King of the Rain

And I said:

Chorus