The Guitar chords by Darren Hanlon

Chords with lyrics

Capo 3


[Verse]

A minorAm                       G+G
It was a sunday in east Berlin i chanced upon a market
                             A minorAm
i though how love or lack thereof matched the coins in my pocket
                      G+G
but thats ok i have no pay im happy all the same
                            A minorAm
to look through a box of broken clocks and old Atari games

  C majorC              G+G        A minorAm
and racks of army uniforms of both the west and east
  C majorC                  G+G    A minorAm
and postcards sent to people who were long ago deceased

A minorAm                    G+G
a plastic orange comb left over from the GDR
                        A minorAm
and in a nook behind some books an old parlour guitar

A minorAm                           G+G
it was sat upon a wooden packing crate that had been flipped
                            A minorAm
and if the chance the cursory glance youd call it non descript
                                G+G
but i double took i stopped to look and its just one of those things
                                A minorAm
i do when at a loss i reached across and lightly brushed the strings


C majorC                    G+G        A minorAm
the sound both deep and ancient came up from the hole beneath
C majorC                    G+G        A minorAm
the kind that comes from timber given in to times bequethed
C majorC                G+G        A minorAm
enough for me to wonder i put up my hand to hale
C majorC                E minorEm       A minorAm
the vendor of the table just to ask... if its for sale


[Break]

A minorAm                           G+G
well he had a chin with whiskers in and in between his lips
                        A minorAm
he held a cigarette he hadnt lit i took him for a gypsy
                        G+G
he stooped and bent and complimented me on my selection
                        A minorAm
to my surprise within his eyes i saw my own reflection

C majorC                G+G        A minorAm
i dont him im not buying im just interested to know
C majorC                    G+G        A minorAm
so i thought how love or lack thereof matched my fiscal flow
C majorC                    G+G    A minorAm
he asked me for my name and when he handed it to me
C majorC                 E minorEm      A minorAm
he said it undignified to talk of money... before history

[Break]

and then he said....

A minorAm                           G+G
if you hold it right up to the light in pencil can be seen
                      A minorAm
the signature of the luthier and the date 1918
                        G+G
but sir have you got the certificate of authenticity
                                A minorAm
he said whats the point when you can get the story straight from me

A minorAm                           G+G
a russian commander first saw it in a shop window in munich
                                A minorAm
he was on a stroll and felt the roll of deutchmarks in his tunic
                        G+G
he bought it on a whim and to his friend the commisar
                            A minorAm
said if i survive this war alive ill learn to play guitar
C majorC            G+G          A minorAm
he had one final 7 week assignment with his unit
G+G                                A minorAm
and im sad to say he was blown away before he learned to tune it


[Break]

A minorAm                               G+G
it was sent back to his greiving widow with the rest of his effects
                                A minorAm
and it languished there under the stair right where the dust collects
                                G+G
but there came a day when she passed away as well and without kin
                                  A minorAm
so through her stash and it was labelled trash and put out with the bin

C majorC                    G+G    A minorAm
it was only sitting on that lonely street in Leningrad
C majorC                    G+G        A minorAm
for an hour or two before being rescued up by a young lad
                            G+G
he was on the hop afraid to stop for long for fear of prison
                        A minorAm
a balchevik who had been made awefully sick by communism

C majorC                  G+G      A minorAm
he was disenchanted by the practice of the party scheme
C majorC                     G+G    A minorAm
how it proved all men are equal seemed to be a tad extreme
C majorC                        G+G    A minorAm
he walked down by the baltic sea and there he hopped a freigter
C majorC                 E minorEm            A minorAm
and not a word was heard from him again... until many years later


[Break]

A minorAm                                   G+G
the old man stopped to rest and get his breath and his eyes they started glazing
                        A minorAm
over i told him this story was both trajic and amazing
                            G+G
oh dont stop now i must know how this ends and please be quick
                        A minorAm
do you know whht became of this mutanous balchevik?


[Break]

                                G+G
well the old gyspy looked back at me and his eyes they seemed to clear
                        A minorAm
he said in 34 he went ashore in the city of Tangier
                            G+G
but he came undone as hed become from all those years at sea
                        A minorAm
addicted to, as sailors do, port wine and gin rummy
C majorC                G+G        A minorAm
and one night in a game in a cafe near the medina
C majorC                    G+G        A minorAm
as the hour grew ever late the balchies kitty it grew leaner
C majorC                    G+G        A minorAm
and when his francs were gone he prayed upon the evening star
C majorC                         E minorEm        A minorAm
they took the coat that he was wearing, watch and ring....and that guitar


[Break]

A minorAm                         G+G
it was won by a german banker who liked it all just fine
                        A minorAm
who'd grown soft with drinking thinking of his frauline
                                G+G
while still abroad he'd learned some chords and in a few months later
                        A minorAm
when hes again back in berlin hed sit and serenade her
C majorC                 G+G          A minorAm
he was held back in Morocco by the start of World War II
C majorC                        G+G        A minorAm
and he learnt she'd met a young cadet and the two of them shot through
A minorAm                           G+G
he cursed and spat and vowed that as long as she still lingered
                            A minorAm
he'd much rather than play guitar, cut off all his fingers


[Break]

A minorAm                           G+G
well i felt sorry for this banker but it just didnt align
                A minorAm
if its 34 didnt the war begin in 39?
                        G+G
Pedant! he cried, would you deny me a single concession
                        A minorAm
just let me tell you how this thing came into my possession.
                            G+G
i bought it from a local pedler, who bought it from a priest
                            A minorAm
who drove his congregation mad with it to say the least
                             G+G
he'd picked it up for next to nothing browsing at a parish fete
                    A minorAm
donated out of charity from a deceased estate


[Accel]

                        G+G
of a lovely music teacher who played it for her pupils
                            A minorAm
who'd earlier procured it from a man with dubious scrupols
                             G+G
who'd pinched it from a folk rock busker somewhere in the town
                              A minorAm
who'd been playing in Alexanderplatz the night the wall came down

                            G+G
he got it cheaply off a man who run a music store for cash
                        A minorAm
who swapped it from a trader with a handlebar moustache
                        G+G
who found it in a paper where it had been advertised
                            A minorAm
by the son of that German banker who's old girlfriend he despised
                                G+G
you'd think any normal person would have just gone out and sold it
                        A minorAm
but he kept it as a token of the time he was cuckolded
                            G+G
he hid it in his attick and it survived the war up there
                        A minorAm
for 30 years until his son went looking for a chair
                            G+G
his dad refused to talk of it until he turned up his toes
                         A minorAm
but now its found its way to you just give me 400 Euros.



A minorAm                               G+G
The blood drained right out of the gypsy's face til it was ashen
                        A minorAm
he seemed to be completely overcome by his own passion
                            G+G
i couldnt bare to think this was elaborate salesman patter
                            A minorAm
but like i said i had no bread so it really didnt matter
                            G+G
the story clanged and banged around my head for the whole day
                         A minorAm
in spite of all the other things i saw it wouldnt stray
C majorC                G+G        A minorAm
before i even knew it i found myself later on
C majorC                 E minorEm          A minorAm
rushing back to the gypsy but the guitar.... and he were gone


[Break]

A minorAm                            G+G
ive learnt that what you dont buy today may not be there tomorrow
                                A minorAm
and you are never strictly poor if youve a friend from which to borrow
                            G+G
i thought the old gypsy knew this before he ever saw me
                        A minorAm
because when i went Sunday, he was waiting for me
C majorC                      G+G      A minorAm
Ive one more thing to sing my friends, if i may be so bold,
C majorC                 G+G        A minorAm
the guitar of which i sing, is the one which i now hold
A minorAm                               G+G
and to think of love, and the fullness of, is something i get from it
                                A minorAm
and this song i sing wont mean a thing unless its played upon it.