Robyn Hitchcock - Black Snake tab

#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------##
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 17:41:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Terry Marks 
Subject: h/robyn_hitchcock/Black_Snake_album.crd

Today I returned from lunch to find a
"thank you" from him -- a mug with a picture of Syd screened on one side!
The other side has  some guy (unrecognizable, at least to me) screaming,
with the words "The Anderson Council" circling his head... Chris (the
student aide) has no clue what this is all about -- a house he lived in in
British Columbia had a big crate of these mugs in the basement!
My guess is, a floyd cover band??? Anyone know?
@ALBUM: Black Snake Diamond Role

BLACK SNAKE DIAMOND ROLE
by
Robyn Hitchcock


@The Man Who Invented Himself

I met this man called Mr Barrett or something in the South Kensington
Subway playing this tune on an old guitar.  Anyway I gave him 50p and
he showed me how to play it.

{This tune is played on the joannah on CD so it sounds natuarally
enough a little different on guitar.  These are the chords but it's
worth hunting around to get those inversions right.

Lyrics from Mr Mellotron, Chords from Tin-Ear.

Intro

F   Gmin  Bb     C
F   Gmin  Bb     C   F

F       Bb              F
He came bursting out of nowhere
Bb                     F
like a sphere into the sky
Bb                       F
And he cast his light on everything
Gmin            Bb
it was like he never died

Bb                     F
And he landed right on target
Bb                     F
But the target rolled away
Bb                        F
And it left fim pointing nowhere
          Gmin              Bb
You could here the children say
Bb                   C                F       G#min
He's the fellow, the man who invented himself
Bb                  C                F              F
He's the fellow the man who invented himself


And it continues in the same way for the next verse, and then,
Bb                      F
Nobody knows where he's from
Bb                      F
Nobody knows where he's gone gone gone
F2           C
But he's not here

The F2 chord looks like this  (it's still an F chord, just an inversion)
(X03311)


@SONG: BRENDA'S IRON SLEDGE
Intro:
D:-----2-2-2-0---0-------0-0-0-------|
A:-0-3---------3-----2-3-------3-2-0-|

A
We head downhill, my hands fly back
Our fingers freeze, our hair falls out, our hair falls out
Our fingers freeze, our hair falls out
The iron piston pumps and spouts
D
The steaming air as hot as sprouts
E           A             E
All aboard, Brenda's iron sledge

No one's on top, they're comfortable
They're sitting on a human chain, a human chain
They're sitting on a human chain
Their limbs compressed in icy slush
Of freezing in a raw meat groove
All aboard, Brenda's iron sledge
D                    A                E
Please don't call me Reg, it's not my name
The body's rear, a bucking sled
Which hits a tree and falls asleep, and falls asleep
Which hits a tree and that is that
The grasshoppers curl up and burst
And Brenda shovels on the wurst
All aboard, Brenda's iron sledge
Please don't call me Reg, it's not my name

@SONG: DO POLICEMEN SING?

The opening riff isn't really a chord,
but tabbed out I guess it would look like:

Bass plays low E...
Gtr. slides down from XXX9-11-X on beat 2,
Then X12XXX, and pull off on the A string to X02XXX.

The chord would be Em, and in both cases
the two notes are E and Bb, so let's
just refer to them as Hi and Lo, shall we?

Between couplets in the verse,
the Asus2 is just X02200, picked, with the
bass going up to B on beat 4.

   Hi       Lo           Hi         Lo
"O do policemen sing?" I heard a person cry...

    Hi      Lo          Hi              Lo  Asus2
"We can do anything!" I heard the force re- ply...

And so on until...the chorus:

B:      X24442
E:      X79997 (bass plays A)
D:      X57775 (bass plays G)
C#:     X46664
C#maj7: X46564
F#:     244322
D#m:    X68876

Bsus2               E              D
It's true becauzza...  Never argue with a rozzer...
D              C#         C#maj7
Never show him insolence...
F#           D#m
Confidence...

The next 5 measures are picked, but if they were chords
they'd be C#: 9-11-11-10-9-9, B: 799877, and B7: 797877.
Some might choose to play these all as 7ths if they
were playing them as chords.

     C#               B
'Cuz who supplies the evidence?

     C#               B
It's not your mother, or your lover,

B7
Or your best friend's dog...

...And back to Em and the Hi-Lo verse part.

The end section:

--------------------|
--------------------|
--------------------|
--------------------|
---2---1---2---1----|
0-----------------3-|    D (XX0232)
...Our law and or-der's never-never-never-never-never gonna break down

Repeat 3 times, and on the last repeat (remember there's
an extra "never"), end (on "Down") with a chord which
might be described as E5 (add Bb): 022300.

As for the outro, it starts with the same E5 (addBb) chord,
then switches to XX4442, and up to XXX775, XXX997, XXX9-12-10,
and XXX-9-11-9, as the song fades out.

--------------------------------------

@SONG: THE LIZARD
A            Em                 D7             C      G
You wear the lizard's shoes and afterwards you get confused
You wear the lizard's coat and afterwards you fail to float
You take the lizard's path but look who's lying in the bath
You wear the lizard's skin no man can be a god and win at all
You take the lizard's mask but look who's lying in the cask
And the clocks have stopped you'll find out what the lizard
dropped
You know the lizard's won but you can't work out how it's done
The lizard is your friend and will be to the very end of time
You lie beneath the stars the lizard knows how high they are
The stars are out of reach the lizard lingers on a beach
The stars are out of date the lizard had them on a plate
You vomit in the shed the lizard got there first he's dead now


@SONG: MEAT

E is played as [listen for rhythm] a sort of switch between E and A.
or as just a plain E, if you're into simplifying things.

E
It don't feel much like a home without a dog
It don't feel much like a pool without a frog
A                                         E
It don't feel much like a world without a girl
A                                        B
It don't feel much like a girl without a human being
It don't feel much like a fish without a pond
It don't feel much like a fence with no beyond
It don't feel much like a church without a god inside
It don't feel much like a bank without a lot of money
B                                           E
Oh come on baby (doo-doo-doot) give me your meat
It don't feel much like a foot without a shoe
It don't feel much like a me without a you
It don't feel much like a train without a buffet car
It don't feel much like a bed when there's nobody on it

Ah swallow it
It don't feel much like a bath without a plug
It don't feel much like a hole without a drug
It don't feel much like a drug without a side effect
It don't feel much like an effect if you don't love nobody
Come on baby gimme your meat


@SONG: ACID BIRD
Intro:
D:-0--0-0-0----------------------------|
A:---0-0-0-0---------------------------|
[ Tab from: http://www.guitaretab.com/r/robyn-hitchcock/39619.html ]
D
Sucking on a tap that never dries
                                     A
Could you take it right between your eyes
G              D
Bending blood, bending blood
A
The father stood, the father's hood
D                 A              D              A
Like shadow on an acid bird that etched her way across a field
D  E    A
So long ago

Walking through the fields in summer heat
Look at all the creatures 'round your feet
Pumping blood, pumping blood
The mother's gaze, the mother gave
White ointment of an acid kiss that burned upon the lips she
gave you
So long ago, so long ago

G
Fun in the sun, luck in the bloodstream
A                              G
Shallow bodies writhing on the grass
G
Fun in the sun, hair in the slipstream
A                                  G
Tadpoles shooting through a hollow glass

Cutting out a silhouette in dreams
Everything is older than it seems
Son of blood, son of blood
The baby shakes, the baby snakes
That crawl across the acid rings that flicker from your
corpuscles
One sunny day, one sunny day
Fun in the sun everyone knows it
They could be as mellow as the hay
Fun in the sun everyone blows it
They grow up and instantly turn grey
Like shadow of an acid bird that etched its way across a field
So long ago, so long ago


@SONG: I WATCH THE CARS
* E:-0-0h3-0-3-5-3----------

E                                  *
I watch the cars go back and forth
I watch the cars go back and forth
I watch the cars go back and forth
A(5)
Sometimes south and sometimes north
E                                  *
I watch the cars
I hear them stopping down the street
I hear them stopping down the street
I hear the sound of stocking feet
A(5)
I wonder who they're going to meet
E                                  *
I'm getting drunk inside my house
I see the men inside their shells
I see the men inside their shells
A(5)
They go to prostitutes as well
Who never mind the way the smell
E                                  *
The prostitutes are paid for it
Alright!
I hear you're gonna try that too
I hear you're gonna try that too
I hear you're gonna try that too
A(5)
I wouldn't pay to go to you
I'm getting drunk inside my house again
I watch the cars go back and forth
I watch the cars go back and forth
I watch the cars go back and forth
A(5)
Sometimes south and sometimes north
E                                  *
I watch the cars


@SONG: OUT OF THE PICTURE
[I'm a bit unsure about the verse]
A              D                E
Don't you ever wonder 'bout the nowhere girl
Don't you feel sad or feel strange
D           A                 E
There is no escaping from the nowhere girl
A                  D            E
She's never really truly out of range
D
And I'm walking out of the picture
E                    A E            D
Leaving everything behind except my mind
Don't you feel temptation for the nowhere girl
She can burn your hands and sting your heart
She knows it's too late for you to save the world
And you believe that there's still time to start
And I'm walking out of the picture
Leaving everything behind except your mind

D
She's not just a pretty face
            E
She's a big black hole as well
A                           D
She swallows everything she sees

She's not of the human race
She's a creature out of hell
She's's a disease
You are just in time to see the nowhere girl
Settling her fingers 'round your brain
Saw away the taps and you're a brand new world
You'll never ever pass this way again
Walking out of the picture
Leaving everything behind except your mind


@SONG: CITY OF SHAME

E                     D
It was in the city of shame
E                        D
That I found I wasn't to blame
A(5)                B(7)
I was looking for a weird thing or two
A(5)                 B(7)
I discovered that it had to be you
It was in the city of fear
That I shouted 'Is there nobody here?'
Though the echo had the name on a ring
Still the echo wasn't called anything

D           A
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
E           A
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
A           E
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
A                   D
La, la, la, la, la, la, la

It was in the city of love
All the flesh I ate was never enough
Though I knew it wasn't good for my soul
My body hungered for the ultimate goal
It was in the city of spies
That I spoke with nothing but lies
When they set a trap for all you could feel
It's important that your mind is concealed
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
It was in the city of shapes
That she made love to several apes
She felt weird for a couple of days
Pretty soon she got used to their ways
It was in the city of fools
That she sold her beautiful jewels
Someone bought them and sold them again
Now they've been bought by several men
E           A
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
E           D
La, la, la, la
[repeat as needed]

@SONG: LOVE

D                         G
The sun is shining on the ground
C                          D
I see that nothing makes a sound
D                   C
I move invisible as air
G                           D
And choose the time to disappear
D       C                     D
Ah, ah, ah - I'm in love with you

The spirit started long ago
They've found somewhere they couldn't go
They spend their time just looking out
For those who never share a doubt
Ah, ah, ah, ah - they're in love with you
The seagull on the seeping sand
Can die but never understand
The oil that festers on our shore
Will cast a stain for evermore
Ah, ah, ah, ah - who's in love with that?
The gnomes are moving through the night
The sing and fiddle with delight
And we eat Weetabix and sing
About the joys that love can bring
Ah, ah, ah, ah - if they ever come
The sun is shining very hard
It melts both margarine and lard
But me I only dream of you
I hope that you are dreaming too
Ah, ah, ah, ah - I'm in love with you


Dancing On God's Thumb (3:40)
----------------------

Intro: [Soft Boys version]
e:-0----0-1-2-3----0-1-2-7-5-??-3-0-
[the ?? is either a 5 or a 3.  Kimberly plays it very fast and
very distorted, so I can't properly tell.  If you can, let me
know]


B(7)                             A(5)
I don't mind walking through the wind and the rain
I don't mind waiting where they cancel the train
But when I don't have love I stand and complain
       E                 D
I hate everything that I see

I don't mind waiting 'til the end of the world
'Cause in the Universe a womb I am curled
But Armageddon when the flag is unfurled
You know the first to fall out will be me

B(7)                  A(5)         G(3)      B(7)
We are all dancing on God's thumb
We are all dancing on God's thumb

I don't mind eating off the side of the plate
I don't mind jumping off the top of the gate
There's a solution if you're willing to wait and
Believe that it's worth waiting for

'Cause if you try to look for nobody else
You find it gets too much to live for yourself
You'll still be empty though you're crawling with wealth
And you're too fat to squeeze through the door

We are all dancing on God's thumb
We are all dancing on God's thumb

We are all dancing on God's thumb

There's no use preaching like you're gonna be saved
You cannot argue with a cross and a grave
It's just a question of the way you behave
If you wanna survive on your feet

We got a bunch of crippled looners in power
Who wanna treat us to a nuclear shower
I'd give my life for just a gun and an hour
You know I'd murder them out in the street
We are all dancing on God's thumb.  It's humming disco


Terry "The Human Mellotron" Marks
a013645t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us