Chords with lyrics
These chords and lyrics are for the studio version of the song.
For the most part, the strumming goes: Base note, Bass note, Down Strum (with some minor variations).
All chords are played in open position, except for F, which is played in a barred E MajorE shape.
Intro
A minorAm FF A minorAm FF E minorEm
A minorAm
Little birds born without a mother or a father
A minorAm
I can feel their feathers forming in the running water
G+G
Now there is another in the middle of my mouth
E minorEm
A augmentedA hundred altogether inside of me now
A minorAm
Little birds, little birds, come into my body
A minorAm
Mother, they're within me every moment I'm awaking
A minorAm
Bodies multiplying until they finally overtake me
G+G
Put your ears up to my mouth and you can hear them singing
E minorEm
Put you hands within me and you'll know what I am feeling
A minorAm
I just want to swallow up and promise to protect them
A minorAm
Daddy, come towards me, I can see his hands are shaking
A minorAm
Put his hands against me, he could see their bodies breaking
G+G
Push me to the floor and put his hands up for a beating
E minorEm
"I don't want to hear it anymore," he kept repeating
A minorAm FF A minorAm FF E minorEm
Do you really want the burning hell to come and get you?
A minorAm
Did you see the burning hell it took your baby brother?
A minorAm
Did you see how far he fell and how he made us suffer?
G+G
Another boy in town at night he took him for his lover
E minorEm
And deep in sin they held each other
A minorAm
So I took a hammer, nearly beat his little brains in
A minorAm
Knowing God in heaven no could never could forgive him
A minorAm G+G E minorEm
So I took a hammer nearly beat his little brains in
A minorAm
Little boy born without a mother or a father
A minorAm
Taken to the river and then pushed into the water
G+G E minorEm
And the priests are singing that the hell was getting hotter
A minorAm
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the only one to save him
A minorAm
From the thing he loves the most but we know will betray him
A minorAm G+G E minorEm
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the only one to save him
A minorAm G+G
And here beneath the water I can see
E minorEm A minorAm
How the light distorts so strange
A minorAm G+G E minorEm
And this is how I would like to leave my body
A minorAm
And start again
Outro:
A minorAm G+G E minorEm A minorAm