Going To Alaska chords by The Mountain Goats

Chords with lyrics

Taboo VI: The Homecoming - Going To Alaska

For live versions, in standard tuning either go with above or:
A augmentedA D MajorD A augmentedA E MajorE
or
E MajorE A augmentedA E MajorE BB

for the main pattern

Album Version:

-1/2 step

G+G C majorC G+G D MajorD G+G C majorC G+G D MajorD

G+G        C majorC
The jacaranda are wet with color,
    G+G              D MajorD
and the heat is a great paint brush, lending color to our lives,
   G+G                C majorC
to the air, and to out faces; but I'm going to Alaska
       G+G             D MajorD
where there's snow to suck the sound out from the air.

C majorC G+G

G+G    C majorC
Up, yes, in the branches,
G+G            D MajorD
the purple blossoms, go pale at the edges;
     G+G               C majorC
there is moaning in the shifting of the sap, and I see in them traces
G+G              D MajorD
of last year, but then they hadn't grown so strong,
G+G                  C majorC
and their limbs were more like wires. Now they are cables.
G+G              D MajorD          G+G
thick and alive with alien electricity, and I am going to Alaska,
   C majorC             G+G
where you can go blind just by looking at the ground,
D MajorD
where fat is eaten by itself
C majorC             G+G
just to keep your body warm.

G+G             C majorC
Because from where we are now, it seems, really,
  G+G              D MajorD
that everything is growing in a thousand different ways;
G+G                    C majorC
that the soil is soaked through with old blood and with relatives
G+G                      D MajorD
who were buried here, or close to here, and they are giving rise
G+G                C majorC
to what is happening. Or can you tell me otherwise?
   G+G             D MajorD
I am going to Alaska, where the animals can kill you,
    G+G           C majorC
but they do so in silence, as though if no-one hears them,
    G+G             D MajorD
then it really won't matter. I am going to Alaska.
C majorC                   G+G
They tell me that it's perfect for my purposes.

G+G C majorC G+G D MajorD