1. RAILROAD BOY

           G:320033 C:032033   G                   C          G
I will not sing      your ugly song  I won't put on your ugly play  

         Em:022000 C          G         
I cannot join       your ugly priesthood 

         Em  C             G
and if I die   I won't come home

         Em   C 002010 G
Railroad boy  of       mine... 

I bought you crows and candelabra and I went moth-eating with you 
I held you down when you had seizures and read to you at bedtime  
Railroad boy of mine... 
We went to see a beaver dam  We went to see a coral reef 
but life is more than going to see things and that's too bad  
Railroad boy of mine  Railroad boy of mine...


2. SMOKE SIGNALS

C:032010    F:133211               G:355433 or 320033
Well you've got a really long name  
It won't fit on any forms  
You gave me all your mirrors and they made me deformed 

(C): You're sending smoke signals I know your secret code.  

We travel in the plaid van and we give our puppet show 
and we picnic in the winter on maple syrup and snow. (C)  
Well, you made a Molotov cocktail, and you threw it on the ground, 
and it sent us flying, and now we're flying about. (C)

3. YOU LOVE TO FAIL

        D:x00232       G:320033     A:002220 D          G       A
Maybe tomorrow I'll see love in your eyes and mine will dry
Maybe tomorrow we can learn how to fly on these nasty little wings 

           G          D               A         E:022100
(C): And I wanna take you out but you always refuse 
'cause you only play the games that you know you can lose

355533      G               A         D        G         A
You love to fail, that's all you love.  

We don't know why you've been gone  Somebody said you're on the run  
You're living where wild horses run  Well, hey, whatever turns you on. (C)  
I'll be your confidante  Come and go as you please  
I'll honor and protect my Wagner in dungarees.  (C) (C)

4. KINGS

    Bb:113331  Cm:335543       Gm:355333  Eb:668886
All day        snow covered us. 

Night-time: it was always night.  

(play an F)
The people on the street were made of meat.  

Black girl, trucks ran us down. 
Blue boy...
The people on the sidewalk were traced in chalk.  

Bb          Ab:466544          Eb
Whale embryos filled your enormous room.  
Screech-owl kachinas built your spiritual room.  
We were kings, kings!
We were kings, kings!


5. BABIES FALLING [Gregoropoulos/Miller/Burrill]

Note: this is a cover of a Wild Stares song.  During the part
"That old river keeps on rolling..." the synths drop out, so
the chords provided in parentheses are ones that (kinda) match
the ones in the original (which features a different vocal
melody for that passage.)  Confused?  I am too.

          C:032010
Where the workers stand in querulous rows

                            G:320033
awaiting dislocation I will be there too.

When you're cashing in your food stamps 
when you're sleeping in a cattle train I'll be with you 
pushing up against the ticket counter window
face against the glass 
bleeding from the waist
and kissing to be chaste.  

It is said that those who will not rest
have been cursed to tramp like soldiers through the marshes
or that blessed are the ones who leave
the stage like babies falling fast asleep
so I twice am cursed and twice am stuck
affixed to this corner of the earth.

         (A:002220)                     (D:x00232)
That old river keeps on rolling but the old man doesn't see it,

        (C)
he just stands there with his eyes closed 

                    C                 G
asking "where'd you go?" "where'd you go?" 

So wherever you may sleep tonight, 
be it bed or bedrock, home, or open field: 
when your breathing slows and your eyes are closed
when you begin to yield,
then, whatever you have taken as your pillow, 
may it serve as mine as well.  

Underneath the weeping willow I will wait for you forever, 
my eyes forever closed,
asking "where'd you go?" "where'd you go?"


6. LIVING IN AN ABANDONED FIREHOUSE WITH YOU [Merritt/Gage/Gil]

G:320033                         C:032033
You're in your own little world: an expensive birdcage; 

G                  C 
like a plastic baby in a Faberge egg  

I saw you today at the Cafe Blase 
and thought of the nights when we had fire fights  
Nameless seaside ghost town... That's where I go when I see the moon
Living in an abandoned firehouse with you  
You're in your own little head in a field of sunflowers 
and there's blood in your mouth and there's rats all over town. 

(C): Take me out to the beach and I'll tell you my secret name  
Take me under the sea and we'll derail the trains  
Let's run away into the caves I still love you I still love you baby.  

You're in your own little box with ribbons in your hair 
and there's dust in your mouth and worms in the air  
Hideous city of unknown words... 
That's where I live when I go to sleep 
in an abandoned firehouse with you. (C)

7. TAR-HEEL BOY

B:224442 or 799877                                     F#:244322
Tar-heel boy sings a song bout a girl who ain't comin' home 

     E:022100       B
by n by        by n by.  

She worked too long in the mill.  
She's gone to those rolling hills in the sky.  
We're barely off Mama's milk and we're locked in here weavin' silk 
we can't buy.  
While you been off in Oregon I been drinkin' here all alone 
all night long, all day long.  
They shot a nine-year-old boy for a hundred dollars.


8. FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE WOLFBOY

        C:032010 Em:022000 D:x00232
She can make you feel like filth  
She can make you feel like a star
She will scratch till her hand is bloody 
but she'll love you more for the scar  
She remembers the recent past  
She's something the cat dragged in  
She's a trollop in paisley, so, 

(C): take her down to the woods where the wolfboy lives, 
so the villagers say, 
and the three of you evaporate into the night 
till you both fall in love with him.  

With a face like an African mask and the strength of ten men 
when she's wrong she's in charge in the world at large 
and her novels are all very long  
She belongs on the astral plane  
She's probably a hologram  
Put her back in the padded cell.  (C)  
So you'll dress head to foot in lame and you'll dance in December snow  
When the sky turns to wine you'll embrace 
and forget everything that you know  
She can tell you the will of the gods  
Butter won't melt in her mouth, but you will  
Don't bother to ask her name.  (C)


9. JOSEPHINE

E---------------------------------
B---------------------------------
G-----------------------------2---
D---------4---------------4-------
A-----2-------2---0-----4---------
E-0-----0-------4-----2-----------

If I were Napoleon, you could be my Josephine.  
We could go to drive-in films in my red convertible.  
If I were Napoleon, I might be in magazines.  
I'd write some science fiction - science fiction about you.  
You could be my Josephine: just you and your chaperone.  
Let you be my Josephine, Josephine.  
If I were Napoleon, you could be my lady love.  
Look into my soft blue eyes.  Run your fingers through my hair.  
If I were Napoleon, you could be my turtle-dove 
living out in Corsica in our summer cottages 
and you could be my Josephine and we could be Siamese twins.  
Let you be my Josephine, Josephine.


10. 100,000 FIREFLIES

B:224442    E:022100 B    F#:244322 
   I        have a   mandolin.  

B    E       B         F#
   I play it all night long.

B     E        B       F#     E  
   It makes me want to kill myself. 
 
I also have a dobro 
made in some mountain range
sounds like a mountain range in love 

B             E           F#      B       E          F#
   but when I turn up the tone     on my electric guitar

B    F#           B                A:002220 E 
I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me.

       B          E                B   F#  
I went out to the forest and caught 

  B         E      A      E  
A hundred thousand fireflies.

   B        E              B      
As they ricochet round the room 

F#     B       E       A      E
they remind me of your starry eyes.

E                F#           E           B  
Someone else's might not have made me so sad 

    E                 F#           E 
but this is the worst night I ever had, 

       B     F#          B                A          E 
'cause I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me.

(bridge):  B  F#  B  F#  E  F#  E  F#

E            B     F#  
You won't be happy with me, 
but give me one more chance
you won't be happy anyway.  
Why do we still live here 
in this repulsive town?  
All our friends are in New York. 
Why do we keep shrieking, 
when we mean soft things?  
We should be whispering all the time...