Master Song tab by Leonard Cohen

[Intro]

Bb/A


Ab                            Gm
I believe that you heard your master sing
Ab                 Gm
when I was sick in bed.
Ab                         Gm
I suppose that he told you everything
Ab                            Gm
that I keep locked away in my head.
Ab                   Cm
Your master took you travelling,
        Eb                    F
well at least that's what you said.
    Bb     Bb/A     Bb      Bb/A
And now do you come back to bring
     Eb                D
your prisoner wine and bread?

    Ab              Gm
You met him at some temple, where
     Ab                       Gm
they take your clothes at the door.
        Ab                        Gm
He was just a numberless man in a chair
                Ab            Gm
who'd just come back from the war.
        Ab                Cm
And you wrap up his tired face in your hair
       Eb                   F
and he hands you the apple core.
        Bb           Bb/A        Bb       Bb/A
Then he touches your lips now so suddenly bare
           Eb                    D
of all the kisses we put on some time before.


        Ab                           Gm
And he gave you a German shepherd to walk
       Ab                    Gm
with a collar of leather and nails,
       Ab                             Gm
and he never once made you explain or talk
      Ab                   Gm
About all of the little details,
        Ab                 Cm
such as who had a word and who had a rock,
        Eb                  F
and who had you through the mails.
          Bb        Bb/A      Bb       Bb/A
Now your love is a secret all over the block,
        Eb                                    D
and it never stops not even when your master fails.


       Ab                  Gm
And he took you up in his aeroplane,
          Ab               Gm
which he flew without any hands,
        Ab                           Gm
and you cruised Above the ribbons of rain
      Ab                      Gm
that drove the crowd from the stands.
        Ab                     Cm
Then he killed the lights in a lonely lane
        E               F
and, an ape with angel glands,
  Bb        Bb/A Bb       Bb/A
erased the final wisps of pain
         Eb               D
with the music of rubber bands.

    Ab                     Gm
And now I hear your master sing,
    Ab               Gm
you kneel for him to come.
    Ab               Gm
His body is a golden string
          Ab               Gm
that your body is hanging from.
    Ab               Cm
His body is a golden string,
   Eb             F
my body has grown numb.
   Bb       Bb/A     Bb      Bb/A
Oh now you hear your master sing,
     Eb             D
your shirt is all undone.

    Ab                         Gm
And will you kneel beside this bed
        Ab                Gm
that we polished so long ago,
   Ab                       Gm
before your master chose instead
    Ab            Gm
to make my bed of snow?
     Ab                     Cm
Your eyes are wild and your knuckles are red
           Eb               F
and you're speaking far too low.
   Bb      Bb/A               Bb      Bb/A
No I can't make out what your master said
   Eb              D
before he made you go.

       Ab                           Gm
Then I think you're playing far too rough
       Ab                    Gm
for a lady who's been to the moon
     Ab                         Gm
I've lain by this window long enough
       Ab               Gm
to get used to an empty room.
          Ab                     Cm
And your love is some dust in an old man's cough
       Eb                    F
who is tapping his foot to a tune,
          Bb    Bb/A         Bb           Bb/A
and your thighs are a ruin, you want too much,
       Eb                             D
let's say you came back some time too soon.

  Ab                Gm
I loved your master perfectly
   Ab                    Gm
I taught him all that he knew.
       Ab               Gm
He was starving in some deep mystery
       Ab                       Gm
like a man who is sure what is true.
      Ab                       Cm
And I sent you to him with my guarantee
        Eb                    F
I could teach him something new,
       Bb        Bb/A          Bb        Bb/A
and I taught him how you would long for me
    Eb                                      D
no matter what he said no matter what you'd do.

(Same as 1st verse)

Ab                            Gm
I believe that you heard your master sing
Ab                 Gm
when I was sick in bed.
Ab                         Gm
I suppose that he told you everything
Ab                            Gm
that I keep locked away in my head.
Ab                   Cm
Your master took you travelling,
        Eb                    F
well at least that's what you said.
    Bb     Bb/A     Bb      Bb/A
And now do you come back to bring
     Eb                D
your prisoner wine and bread?