Autumn chords by Joanna Newsom

Verse:
Am     C           G     F
Driven through by her own sword,
Am       C         G     F
summer died last night, alone.
Am        C           G     F
Even the ghosts huddled up for warmth.
Am         C       G        F
Autumn has come to my hometown.


Verse:
Am        C        G     F
Friendly voices, dead and gone,
Am         C          G       F
 singing, Star of the country down...
 Am        C           G            F
(even the ghosts help raise the barn,
 Am     C        G     F
here, now, in my hometown)

Chorus:

F       Eb     D

   D                C
— when, out of the massing
         Bb      G         Bb   C   D
that bodes and bides, in the cold west,
D        C        Bb
flew a waxwing, who froze
     G       Bb  C   D
and died against my breast!
  D                 C
And all the while, rain,
              Bb     G
like a weed in the tide,
  Bb   C   D
swans and lists, down
     C           Bb     G
on the gossiping lawns,
    Bb    C    D
saying tsk tsk tsk.


Verse:

Am         C                G          F
I may have changed. It's hard to gauge.
Am          C           G        F
Time won't account for how I've aged.
Am        C            G        F
Would I could tie your lying tongue,
      Am       C       G         F
who says that leaving keeps you young.
Am      C    G     F
And I have got no control
Am       C        G     F
over my heart, over my mind.
Am      C          G         F
Over the hills, the rainclouds roll.
Am      C         G        F
I'll winter here, wait for a sign


Chorus:

F     D#    D

D
to cast myself
    C       Bb
out, over the water,
   G        Bb  C     D
riven like a wishbone.
D
You'd hardly guess
 D        C                  Bb
I was my own mother's daughter;
       G            Bb   C   D
I ain't naturally given to roam.
D                        C
And I lay low, when I return, and I move
 Bb       G
like a gurney
      Bb     C     D
whose wheels are squeaking,
 D                 C
alone, here in my home,
      Bb
and I laugh,
        G
when you speak of my
Bb    C     D
pleasure-seeking


Bridge:

 Fmaj7
          Eb C Bb F G
among the tall pines,
D         C Bb G Bb C D
along the lay-lines.
Fmaj7           Eb C Bb F G
Here, where the loon keens.
D               C Bb G Bb  C  D
There, where the moon leans.
Fmaj7  Eb     C     Bb        F     G
There where I know my violent love lays down,

D      C     Bb     G     Bb  C   D
in a row of silent, dove-gray days.
           C      Bb G   Bb    C    D
Here, in a row of silent, dove-gray days.

Verse:

Am        C         G     F
Wherever I go, I am snowbound
   Am         C          G       F
by thoughts of him whom I would sun.
  Am          C      G     F
I loved them all, one by one.
Am          C          G      F
Cannot gain ground, cannot outrun;
Am        C  G    F
but time marches along.
Am         C     G       F
You can't always stick around.
Am           C        G       F
But, when the final count is done,
 Am    G      F    Em
I will be in my hometown.
       Bb    G          C
I will be in my hometown.


Outro: