The Charm Of Innocence chords by Momus

C           D
I was born with the charm of innocence
   A      Bb
On my back like a cross
C         D
Thorns upon my forehead
A        Bb
Round my neck I wore it
      C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
       E
Sometimes an albatross

   A              C#m
It began at a school that turned boys into gentlemen
G           Bm
Then turned them on to debauchery
   A           C#m
I was forced to my knees in front of these gentlemen
G            Bm
If I refused they would torture me
  A            C#m
On Sundays I'd stalk the Botanical Garden
  G         Bm
And under my uniform something would harden
  F                E
Whenever I passed a girl of my own age

  A          C#m
Or did it begin with au pair girls from Germany
G            Bm
Paid by the hour to look after us?
A           C#m
Did it begin with that first opportunity
  G           Bm
To corner a stranger with nakedness?
A         C#m
Maybe the clinical way they undressed me
G          Bm
Stayed with me and deeply distressed me
F                   E
I think, at heart, I'm something of a prude

   C           D
I was born with the charm of innocence
   A      Bb
On my back like a cross
C         D
Thorns upon my forehead
A        Bb
Round my neck I wore it
      C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
       E
Sometimes an albatross

A         C#m
Then at eighteen I decided I wanted
  G         Bm
To be a commercial photographer
  A       C#m
I rented a studio down by the docks
    G           Bm
Which I shared with a friendly pornographer
 A           C#m
I photographed models in fluorescent light
   G              Bm
Whose veins were so blue and whose breasts were so white
   F                  E
I assumed, like the moon, women were blue cheese

A          C#m
When I left home I already had five years
  G          Bm
Of self abuse under my belt
 A             C#m
I found certain women who'd let me try anything
G            Bm
Just to find out how it felt
    A           C#m
In some garish hotel room with vile decoration
  G           Bm
The wallpaper witnessed my first pollination
F                 E
The paisley patterns witnessed an abortion

   C           D
I was born with the charm of innocence
   A      Bb
On my back like a cross
C         D
Thorns upon my forehead
A        Bb
Round my neck I wore it
      C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
       E
Sometimes an albatross

    A           C#m
In the army they taught me to share the abuse
     G           Bm
That I'd kept up 'til then to myself
    A
There's nothing like killing
  C#m         G           Bm
For coaxing a shy boy of twenty-one out of his shell
    A           C#m
In the dark continent with a peace-keeping force
    G          Bm
I fell in with a bunch of Algerian whores
F                   E
And promised them I'd try and keep in touch

B           Ebm
We met up again in the eighteenth arrondisement
A        C#m
I remember them well
   B              Ebm
Their lank stringy hair and their big bulbous noses
   A      C#m
Their unmistakable smell
    B           Ebm
I'd approach all the ugliest, seediest jerks
  A            C#m
And ask them to keep a young model in work
G                       F#
Some men, thank Christ, don't discriminate at all

   C           D
I was born with the charm of innocence
   A      Bb
On my back like a cross
C         D
Thorns upon my forehead
A        Bb
Round my neck I wore it
      C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
       E
Sometimes an albatross

    A          C#m
I will pass my old age by a pale two-bar fire
G          Bm
Patiently waiting to die
A             C#m
Twitching the lace as the schoolgirls go past
G          Bm
Tracing a page of Bataille
  A            C#m
And if you catch sight of my secondhand coat
G             Bm
Leaving behind it a faint whiff of goat
     F          E
Remember both of us are naked underneath

 B               Ebm
I thought it would end with the first obscene phone call
  A          C#m
The second professional kill
  B            Ebm
But somehow detached from my actual behavior
   A          C#m
This innocence burdens me still
B         Ebm
Up in the attic I pick up the brush
 A            C#m
Paint in the crow's feet, paint out the blush
  G                 F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of
  G                        F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of
  G     G/F#   G/E  G/F#   F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
  G     G/F#      G/E    G/F#    F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
  G     G/F#   G/E  G/F#   F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
  G     G/F#      G/E    G/F#    F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
  G     G/F#   G/E  G/F#   F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
  G     G/F#      G/E    G/F#    F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)