others/dan_bern_lithuania.htm

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  11 <title>Dan Bern: Lithuania</title>
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  16
  17 <h1 class="songtitle">Lithuania</h1>
  18
  19 <p>Written by Dan Bern<br />
  20 Tabbed by Eyolf &Oslash;strem</p>
  21
  22 <hr />
  23
  24 <p class="verse">Chords: </p>
  25
  26 <pre class="chords">
  27 G6           320030
  28 Fsus2        xx3011
  29 Fmaj9sus4/e  003011</pre>
  30
  31 <p>The tab of the intro is just an approximation; he mostly plays it in a mixture of
  32 fingerpicking and strumming. </p>
  33
  34 <hr />
  35
  36 <pre class="tab">
  37   G6
  38   :   .   .   .     :   .   .   .     :   .   .   .     :   .   .   .
  39 |---------------0-|---------------0-|-------0-------0-|-------0---------|
  40 |-----------3-----|-----3-----3-----|---3-------3-----|---3-------3---0-|
  41 |-----0-------0---|-----0-------0---|-----0-------0---|-----0-------0---|
  42 |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
  43 |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
  44 |-3-------3-------|-3-------3-------|-3-------3-------|-3-------3-------|
  45
  46   Am
  47   :   .   .   .     :   .   .   .     :   .   .   .     :   .   .   .
  48 |---------------0-|---------------0-|---------------0-|-------0--------0-|
  49 |-1---------1-----|-----------1-----|-----------1-----|---1-------1------|
  50 |-----2-------2---|-----2-------2---|-----2-------2---|-----2-------2----|
  51 |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|------------------|
  52 |-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0-------|-0-------0--------|
  53 |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|------------------|</pre>
  54
  55 <pre class="verse">
  56 G6
  57 I'd like to be a good American and write an elegy to the automobile
  58 Am
  59  But no matter where it takes me I don't really feel any different</pre>
  60
  61 <pre class="verse">G6
  62  I got one foot in the black and white two dimensional ghosts of Lithuania,
  63 Am
  64  the other foot in sunny California where the people are all well-tanned
  65 as they drive their Mercedeses to the mini-malls and take a lunch
  66 or network with you or drive past and kill you for no reason
  67
  68 G6
  69  These are my ghosts: Uncle Emmanuel, Uncle Eli,
  70 Am
  71 Aunt Mia, and my grandparents, Jenny and Tobias, none of whom I've ever met
  72
  73 G6
  74 I saw some letters once that they wrote to my dad in Palestine in 1940
  75                            Am
  76 - not too long before they all got shot
  77
  78 <em>My only bridge to them is my dad, he knew them, he knew me, now he's gone too</em>
  79
  80 G6
  81 Sometimes I want to get next to them,
  82 Am
  83 sometimes I want to push them all away, say &quot;You're not *my* ghosts,
  84 I live in Sunny California, I drive a 1992 Red Chevrolet,
  85                                  G6
  86 I drive fast, and I drive as far west as anyone can drive,
  87                                                      Am
  88 eight thousand miles from Lithuania and if I could escape by driving further
  89 then I would, but it doesn't get me anyplace new&quot;
  90
  91
  92 G6
  93 Hmmm
  94 Am
  95 Hmmm
  96
  97 G6
  98 I guess if I was a true American, I could write an elegy to the automobile,
  99 Am
 100 but when I jump in I can't escape the way I feel
 101
 102 G6
 103 Sometimes I want to dance on Hitler's grave, and shout out,
 104          Am
 105 &quot;Groucho Marx, Lenny Bruce, Leonard Cohen, Philip Roth, Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein,
 106 Woody Allen, Leonard Bernstein, Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, Sandy Kofacs!&quot;
 107
 108 G6
 109 And then I want to shout and sing as loud as I can,
 110 watch the chandeliers that sway dangerously overhead, proclaiming
 111 Am
 112 Krystalnacht is over
 113 I say that Krystalnacht is over!
 114 G6
 115 The only broken glass tonight
 116 will be from wedding glasses shattered under boot heels
 117 Am
 118 We're not the ones who are in the museum, its you,
 119 your curious mustache and your chamber of horrors
 120
 121 Hmmmm
 122 Hmmmm
 123
 124 G6
 125 I've a friend about my age whose parents met in Auschwitz on the day of Liberation,
 126 Am
 127 she works for a big company now in San Francisco, and just moved into a new house
 128
 129 G6
 130 I've a friend who lies in her hospital bed after fifteen operations
 131                         from a botched appendectomy
 132 Am
 133 I go to visit her with a heart heavy from the things on my mind, and she cheers me up
 134
 135          G6
 136 I saw my dad tell jokes, and teach me how to laugh, thirty years after his parents,
 137 Am
 138 brothers, sister were all shot, murdered in the streets of Lithuania
 139
 140       G6
 141 I see trees growing tall and the sun coming up, and the ocean roaring home,
 142            Am
 143 and know I must go on I must go on! It would be cowardly to stop,
 144                     C/g                          D/f#   Dsus4/f#   D7/f#
 145 it would be an aberration to do anything else</pre>
 146
 147 <pre class="bridge">
 148      G                        Am
 149 Amid something you tried to remember for days,
 150     Cm              G
 151 The fog is suddenly lifting, The haze
 152    Em                           Bm
 153 is gone from your mind, and its not so much
 154           C              Am
 155 that your memory finally heeded
 156                       C/g        D/f#     Dsus4
 157 Just that you gave up needing to need it</pre>
 158 <pre class="bridge2">
 159 G            Em
 160 Hey hey, the fog has gone,
 161 G            Em
 162 Hey hey, the fog has gone
 163     C                    Am
 164 Its time for you to come out,
 165                       Cm
 166 no longer a reason to die
 167     G            Am    Cm             D         D7
 168 And something is over, something else begins</pre>
 169 <pre class="bridge">The end of the century is coming
 170 Like a blind woman relentlessly spinning
 171 But before its sewed shut you wanted to scream,
 172 &quot;Hold on just a minute, was this just a dream?
 173 Or is there something to learn besides who got the gold,
 174 And who's been losing and winning?</pre>
 175 <pre class="bridge">But the century's a man-made process,
 176 An attempt to stick order on chaos
 177 We're born with ten fingers, so we count up to ten,
 178 But if everyone counted the cracks on the wall,
 179 Yeah, we'd count up to three, and then it wouldn't be
 180 The end of the century at all</pre>
 181
 182 <pre class="bridge2">Hey hey, the fog has gone
 183 Hey hey, the fog has gone
 184    C                      Am
 185 C'mon, we'll drive up the coast
 186                            Bm        Cm
 187 Its a Tuesday and Thursday I can't remember,
 188     G       Am
 189 and I don't care
 190       C                   Cm
 191 We'll drive to Seattle or else Oklahoma
 192    C                    Cm
 193 Or else, if we wanna, a boat to Hawaii
 194    C                    Cm
 195 Or maybe Japan with the kings of karaoke
 196 Dsus4
 197 Come out!
 198         Fmaj9sus4/e  C                  G
 199 Come on out now girl, you've gotta come out!
 200 F(sus2)                                     C
 201 Maybe the only thing jumping in the car and driving can get us
 202                     G
 203 is an empty tank of gas
 204        F(sus2)                  C           G
 205 but it sure beats just sitting around here
 206 F(sus2)                C                    G
 207 Maybe we'll get lucky, find our own private river valley,
 208 Fsus2                    C                G
 209 or at least an all-night diner where they know how to poach an egg
 210 Fsus2                 C                     G
 211 Maybe we'll meet some nice people along the way,
 212     F/a
 213 and anyway, you know
 214 C              G
 215     I'll never leave you,
 216 F           C                   G
 217  You know I'll never leave you
 218 F  C           G
 219     I'll never leave you</pre>
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