Standard (EADGBE)

Intro

Let ~ ring

Verses

(Em may not be played every time/at all; Up to you)

Barren rocks and sand, our wooden sculpture hands,

 held like a timber hitch, held candles to the sun

Both faint and fading fast, we walked on, windward

 kept time with a pocketmouse, mouths kept mostly shut

Thought broke the silence like a bone

 half-moaned: "you've worn me like an albatross,

I've only slowed you down.

You could've long traded in your braided crown

 by now you could've found that Anabaptist girl you always used to go on about

As we rode in circles on our bicycles;

 we walked on balance beams as the audience cheered for us

We burned like fevers under carriage hats

 hid behind Venetian masks

In our human costumes

We stood like statues once in shepherd's check

 we'll both be decked in herringbone,

wrapped border drab around already broken ironstone"

"But I've seen these cliffs before,

St. Agnes brought her palm branch to the hospital

looked upward lest the charm had fled

from my brother's breathing bed

[PLAY SOFTLY]

And when he died I shut his dogtooth violet eyes:

 He looked just like me

 climb on down and see

they laid him on the rocks below

 there'll be enough to fill your cup for days

I'll stay up here and rest.

[LOUD AGAIN]

We'll fly in straight lines as from carronades

 we'll crash like tidal waves, decimate the islands

As our hollowed lumber falls like water, ends where I start

 In that tattered rag shop back in Asbury Park

Outro

:

Look how soon my hands won't move

but if you'll improve, we'll all improve

Sixty feet and my feet won't move

but if you'll improve, we'll all improve

Forty feet, my legs won't move

but as you improve, we all improve

Fill our den with acorn mast,

I'll wake before the salmon pass

Ten foot more and nothing moves"

Special thanks to mxerscott for tabbing the horns during the outro: