Nick Cave : The Boatman's Call

G

C

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F

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F

Fmaj7

F

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C

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x2

G

C

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F

C

I don't believe in an interventionist God

G

C

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F

C

But I know, darling, that you do

G

C

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F

C

But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him

G

C

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F

C

Not to intervene when it came to you

F

Not to touch a hair on your head

Dm

To leave you as you are

G

And if He felt He had to direct you

Em

G

Then direct you into my arms

Dm

Into my arms, oh Lord

C

Into my arms, oh Lord

Dm

Into my arms, oh Lord

C

Into my arms And I don't believe in the existence of Angels But looking at you I wonder if that's true But if I did I would summon them together And ask them to watch over you To each burn a candle for you To make bright and clear your path And to walk, like Christ, in grace and love And guide you into my arms Into my arms, oh Lord Into my arms, oh Lord Into my arms, oh Lord Into my arms But I believe in Love And I know that you do too And I believe in some kind of path That we can walk down, me and you So keep your candles burning And make her journey bright and pure That she will keep returning Always and evermore Into my arms, oh Lord Into my arms, oh Lord Into my arms, oh Lord Into my arms

Am

The boatman calls from the lake

F

G

A lone loon dives upon the water

Am

I put my hand over hers

F

G

C

Down in the lime-tree arbour The wind in the trees is whispering Whispering low that I love her She puts her hand over mine Down in the lime-tree arbour

G

Through every breath that I breathe

Am

F

And every place I go

Fm

C

Am

There is a hand that protects me

F

G

C

And I do love her so There will always be suffering It flows through life like water I put my hand over hers Down in the lime tree arbour The boatman he has gone And the loons have flown for cover She puts her hand over mine Down in the lime tree arbour Through every word that I speak And every thing I know There is a hand that protects me And I do love her so

C

G

F

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C

G

F

People just ain't no good

C

G

F

I think that's well understood

C

G

F

You can see it everywhere you look

G

People just ain't no good We were married under cherry trees Under blossom we made our vows All the blossoms come sailing down Through the streets and through the playgrounds The sun would stream on the sheets Awoken by the morning bird We'd buy the Sunday newspapers And never read a single word People they ain't no good People they ain't no good People they ain't no good Seasons came, seasons went The winter stripped the blossoms bare A different tree now lines the streets Shaking its fists in the air The winter slammed us like a fist The windows rattling in the gales To which she drew the curtains Made out of her wedding veils People they ain't no good People they ain't no good People they ain't no good at all

C

F

To our love send a dozen white lilies

C

F

To our love send a coffin of wood

C

F

To our love let all the pink-eyed pigeons coo

G

That people they just ain't no good To our love send back all the letters To our love a valentine of blood To our love let all the jilted lovers cry That people they just ain't no good It ain't that in their hearts they're bad They can comfort you, some even try They nurse you when you're ill of health They bury you when you go and die It ain't that in their hearts they're bad They'd stick by you if they could But that's just bullshit baby People just ain't no good People they ain't no good People they ain't no good People they ain't no good at all People they ain't no good People they ain't no good People they ain't no good at all

C

Am

Up those stone steps I climb

Dm

G

Hail this joyful day's return

C

Am

Into its great shadowed vault I go

G#

Gm

F

Hail the Pentecostal morn The reading is from Luke 24 Where Christ returns to his loved ones I look at the stone apostles Think that it's alright for some And I wish that I was made of stone So that I would not have to see A beauty impossible to define A beauty impossible to believe A beauty impossible to endure The blood imparted in little sips The smell of you still on my hands As I bring the cup up to my lips No God up in the sky And no devil beneath the sea Could do the job that you did, baby Of bringing me to my knees Outside I sit on the stone steps With nothing much to do Forlorn and exhausted, baby By the absence of you

Capo:

III

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A

Dm

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A

Dm

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C

F

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C

F

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A

Dm

A

Just like a bird that sings up the sun

Dm

C

In a dawn so very dark

F

Such is my faith for you

C

F

Such is my faith And all the world's darkness can't swallow up One single spark Such is my love for you Such is my love

Bb

F

There is a kingdom

Bb

There is a king

F

And He lives without

A

And He lives within The starry heavens above me The mortal law within So the world appears So the world appears There is a kingdom There is a king And He lives without And He lives within And He is everything |

G

F

C

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F

G

Bb

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G

F

C

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F

G

A

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Am

Dm

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Am

Dm

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C

F

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C

F

| The starry heavens above me The mortal law within So the world appears So the world appears This day so sweet It will never come again So the world appears Through this mist of tears There is a kingdom There is a king And He lives without And He lives within And He is everything

Bm

D

I've felt you coming, girl, as you drew near

G

D

I knew you'd find me, 'cause I longed you here

G

D

Are you my destiny? Is this how you'll appear

C

Wrapped in a coat with tears in your eyes?

A

Well, take that coat, babe, and throw it on the floor

G

D

C

G

Bm

Are you the one that I've been waiting for? As you've been moving surely toward me My soul has comforted and assured me That in time my heart it will reward me And that all will be revealed So I've sat and I've watched an ice-age thaw Are you the one that I've ben waiting for? Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built Out of longing great wonders have been willed They're only little tears, darling, let them spill And lay your head upon my shoulder Outside my window the world has gone to war Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

A

Oh, we will know, won't we?

G

A

Bm

The stars will explode in the sky

A

Oh, but they don't, do they?

G

A

Bm

Stars have their moment and then they die There's a man who spoke wonders, though I've never met him He said "He who seeks finds and who knocks will be let in" I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting And how every little thing anticipates you All down my veins my heart-strings call Are you the one that I've been waiting for? Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

Gm

Cm

I remember a girl so very well

Gm

F

The carnival drums all mad in the air

Gm

Cm

Grim reapers and skeletons and a missionary bell

Bb

F

Oh where do we go now but nowhere? In a colonial hotel we fucked up the sun And then we fucked it down again Well the sun comes up and the sun goes down Going round and around to nowhere The kitten that padded and purred on my lap Now swipes at my face with the paw of a bear I turn the other cheek and you lay into that Oh where do we go now but nowhere?

Eb

F

Oh wake up, my love, my lover, wake up Oh wake up, my love, my lover, wake up Across clinical benches with nothing to talk Breathing tea and biscuits and the Serenity Prayer While the bones of our child crumble like chalk Oh where do we go now but nowhere? I remember a girl so bold and so bright Loose-limbed and laughing and brazen and bare Sits gnawing her knuckles in the chemical light Oh where do we go now but nowhere? You come for me now with a cake that you've made Ravaged avenger with a clip in your hair Full of glass and bleach and my old razor blades Oh where do we go now but nowhere? Oh wake up, my love, my lover, wake up Oh wake up, my love, my lover, wake up If they'd give me my clothes back then I could go home From this fresh, this clean, antiseptic air Behind the locked gates an old donkey moans Oh where do we go now but nowhere? Around the duck pond we grimly mope Gloomily and mournfully we go round again And one more doomed time and without much hope Going round and around to nowhere From the balcony we watched the carnival band The crack of the drum a little child did scare I can still feel his tiny fingers pressed in my hand Oh where do we go now but nowhere? If I could relive one day of my life If I could relive just a single one You on the balcony, my future wife Oh who could have known, but no one? Oh wake up, my love, my lover, wake up Oh wake up, my love, my lover, wake up

With a crooked smile and a heart-shaped face Comes from the West country where the birds sing bass She's got a house-big heart where we all live And plead and counsel and forgive Her widow's peak, her lips I've kissed Her glove of bones at her wrist That I have held in my hand Her Spanish fly and her monkey gland Her Godly body and its fourteen stations That I have embraced, her palpitations Her unborn baby crying, "Mummy" Amongst the rubble of her body Her lovely lidded eyes I've sipped Her fingernails, all pink and chipped Her accent which I'm told is "broad" That I have heard and has been poured Into my human heart and filled me With love, up to the brim, and killed me And rebuilt me back anew With something to look forward to Well, who could ask much more than that? A West country girl with a big fat cat That looks into her eyes of green And meows, "He loves you," then meows again

F

G

F

Last night my kisses were banked in black hair

F

G

F

And in my bed, my lover, her hair was midnight black

C

Em

Am

And all her mystery dwelled within her black hair

F

G

F

And her black hair framed a happy heart-shaped face And heavy-hooded eyes inside her black hair Shined at me from the depths of her hair of deepest black While my fingers pushed into her straight black hair Pulling her black hair back from her happy heart-shaped face To kiss her milk-white throat, a dark curtain of black hair Smothered me, my lover, with her beautiful black hair The smell of it is heavy, it is charged with life On my fingers lingers the smell of her deep black hair Full of all my whispered words, her black hair And wet with tears and goodbyes, her hair of deepest black All my tears cried against her milk-white throat Hidden behind the curtain of her beautiful black hair As deep as ink and black, black as the deepest sea The smell of her black hair Upon my pillow Where her head and all its Black hair did rest

F

G

C

Em

Today she took a train to the West Today she took a train to the West Today she took a train to the West

F

G

C

Capo:

I

Em

D

As they're taking me down, my friend

Em

D

And as they usher me off to my end

A

G

Will I bid you adieu?

A

G

Or will I be seeing you soon?

Em

If what they say around here is true

D

A

Then we'll meet again, me and you My time is at hand, my dove They're gonna pass me to that house above Is Heaven just for victims, dear? Where only those in pain go? Well it take two to tango We will meet again, my love, I know If you're in Heaven then you'll forgive me, dear Because that's what they do up there But if you're in Hell, then what can I say You probably deserved it anyway I guess I'm gonna find out any day For we will meet again, and there'll be Hell to pay Your face comes to me from the depths, dear Your silent mouth mouths, "Yes", dear Dark read and big with blood They're gonna shut me down, my love They're gonna launch me into the stars Well, all things come to pass, yeah, Glory Hallelujah This prayer is for you, my love Sent on the wings of a dove An idiot prayer of empty words Love, dear, is strictly for the birds We each get what we deserve My little snow white dove, rest assured

C

Dm

C

Dm

For you dear, I was born

C

Dm

For you I was raised up

C

Dm

For you I've lived and for you I will die

C

Dm

For you I am dying now

F

G

You were my mad little lover

F

G

In a world where everybody fucks everybody else over

Dm

G

You who are so far from me

Dm

G

So far from me

Em

F

G

Way across some cold neurotic sea

C

Dm

Far from me I would talk to you of all manner of things With a smile you would reply Then the sun would leave your pretty face And you'd retreat from the front of your eyes I keep hearing that you're doing your best I hope your heart beats happy in your infant breast

Dm

G

You are so far from me

Dm

G

Far from me

C

Dm

Far from me There is no knowledge but I know it There's nothing to learn from that vacant voice That sails to me across the line From the ridiculous to the sublime It's good to hear you're doing so well But really, can't you find somebody else that you can ring and tell?

Dm

G

Did you ever care for me?

Dm

G

Were you ever there for me?

C

Dm

So far from me You told me you'd stick by me Through the thick and through the thin Those were your very words My fair-weather friend You were my brave-hearted lover At the first taste of trouble went running back to mother

Dm

G

So far from me

Dm

G

Far from me

Em

F

G

Suspended in your bleak and fishless sea

C

F

Far from me

C

F

C

Far from me

Kiss me again, rekiss me and kiss me Slip your frigid hands beneath my shirt This useless old fucker with his twinkling cunt Doesn't care if he gets hurt Green eyes, green eyes Green eyes, green eyes If it were but a matter of faith If it were measured in petitions and prayer She would materialise, all fleshed out But it is not, nor do I care Green eyes, green eyes Green eyes, green eyes So hold me and hold me, don't tell me your name This morning will be wiser than this evening is Then leave me to my enemied dreams And be quiet as you are leaving, Miss Green eyes, green eyes Green eyes, green eyes

Nick Cave : The Boatman's Call
1997

Into My Arms

Lime-Tree Arbour

People Ain't No Good

Brompton Oratory

There Is A Kingdom

(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?

Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?

West Country Girl

Black Hair

Idiot Prayer

Far From Me

Green Eyes

Nick Cave : The Boatman's Call 1997

Into My Arms

Lime-Tree Arbour

People Ain't No Good

Brompton Oratory

There Is A Kingdom

(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?

Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?

West Country Girl

Black Hair

Idiot Prayer

Far From Me

Green Eyes

Nick Cave : The Boatman's Call
1997