Debris

To the mountain of the moon.

You could never stay in bed too long,

I'll never come back too soon.

(chorus)

You know how a fool I am,

With my short attention span.

Flying in the really season too,

Nothing could keep me away from you.

BREAK (same chords than a verse)

(chorus)

-----------------------------------------------

Rotting On Remand

(Billy Bragg)

I stood before the judge that day

As he refused my bail

And I knew that I would spend my time

Awaiting trial in jail

I said there is no justice

As they led me out of the door

And the judge said, "This isn't a court of justice son

This is a court of law".

They first sent me to Windsor

And then to Stoke on Trent

In a holding cell in Liverpool

Three days and nights I spent

My solicitor can't find me

And my family don't know

I keep telling them that I'm innocent

They (just) say, "Come on son, in you go."

I was picked up on suspicion of something I haven't done

C B/C A/C G/C c G

Here I sit in 'F' wing waiting for my trial to come

It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands

Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand

 

I ended up in this jail

Built in 18-82

When one man to one prison cell

Was a Victorian value

Now three of us are squeezed in here

And you can't escape the smell

Of that bucket in the corner

And we eat in here as well

They let me out of this cage

To slop that bucket out

To get my food and bring it back

And if I'm lucky, get a shower

Apart from one hours exercise

I'm locked in here all day

You don't turn criminals into citizens

By treating them this way

Is the prize of law and order the stench of Wormwood Scrubs

With judges quick to sentence sending more down from above

G D g

It's a cruel unusual punishment that society demands

Innocent till proven guilty, rotting on remand G D A D ...

--------------------------------------

She's got a new spell

(Billy Bragg)

(Capo 5e fret)

 

What is that sound

Where is it coming from

All around

What are you running from

Something you don't understand

Something you cannot command

That's how I know

She's got a new spell

Yes, that's how I know

That she's got a new spell

What's going down

Who's moved this room from round me

Where has it gone

I fear this night will drown me

So I lie awake all night

'Cos I can't sleep with something I can't fight

 

The laws of gravity are very, very strict

And you're just bending them for your won benefit

 

 

 

The laws of gravity are very, very strict

And you're just bending them for your won benefit

One minute she says

She's gone to get the cat in

The next thing I know

She's mumbling in Latin

bm A D

She cut the starts out of the sky

And baked them in a pie

That's how I know

She's got a new spell

Yes, that's how I know

That she's got a new spell

She stole the scene and the scenery

The script and the machinery

That's how I know

She's got a new spell

Yes, that's how I know

That she's got a new spell

------------------------------

Sin City

 

This old town 's filled with sin

It'll swallow you in

If you got some money to burn

Take it home right away

You've got three years to pay

The city is waiting his turn

(chorus)

This old earthquake 's gonna leave me in the poor house

It seems like this old town 's insane

On the thirty-first floor, a gold plated door

Won't keep out the lord's burning rain

The scientist say, it will all wash away

But we don't, believe anymore

So we got our recruit

And a green mohair suit

So please show your I.D. at the door

(chorus)

A friend came around, tried to clean up this town

His ideas made some people mad

But he thrusted his crowd, so he spoke right out loud

And they lost the best friend they had

(chorus)

-------------------------------

The Price I Pay

(Billy Bragg)

 

My friend said she could see no way ahead

And I was probably better off without you

She said to face up to the fact that you weren't coming back

And she could make me happy like you used to

But I'm sorry to say I turned her away

C Ab Maj7

Knowing everything she said was true

And that's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do

There's something inside that hurts my foolish pride

To visit the places we used to go together

Not a day goes by that I don't sit and wonder why

Your feelings for me didn't last forever

Girl I love you so much that sometimes it's such

C Ab Maj7

I'd walk a mile with a stone in my shoe

And that's that price I pay for loving you the way that I do (2x)

 

 

So keep that phone out of my way for the things I must say

C Ab Maj7

Are empty if you don't believe they're true

And that's that price I pay for loving you the way that I do

That's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do

I love you so much that baby it's such

I'd walk a mile with a stone in my shoe ...

----------------------------------

Billy Bragg's "The Man in the Iron Mask". pretty correct as far as I can

tell but I'm sitting here in the dark with my 12-string, which is no fun

to pick on, and no cd player... so.

intro/verses:

(much easier to play this C| in position I but you lose the slide)

----------0-1-0---0--------------------------------------

----------------1---------0---------------0--------------

-------0----2-0--------------------5-----------------0---

----2-----------------------------------0---------2------

-0----------------------2---2----7---\2--------2-------0-

--------------------3-3-------\8------------0------------

when....off...I will not say who..that

-------------------------------

-1-1p0-----------0-----0h1p0---

-2-1p0-------------2-2-------0-

-------h2-------2--2-2---------

--------------2----------------

-----------0-------------------

who so quickly...

When he drops you off I will not say

Who was that who so quickly drove away

The things you've done and the places you've been

When I open the door for you I will not let them in

As long as you come back to me I will never ask

For you I will be the man in the iron mask

then this bridge part:

(octaves optional-not sure if they belong or not but I like them)

----------------------------------------------0-------

----0--1---1------0--------------1----0-------0-------

-2---------0------0--------------0----0-------1-------

---------2-----------2-----------2-------2----0-------

-0--2--3--------2----2-2.......2----2----2----2-----2-

--------------3------0-0.......0---3-----0----0-------

^ ^ ^ ^

Listen to the record... Hit the C, G, hard where indicated... The first Em

mute E&A and go at it for an extra beat before the C. The second time let

the Em ring, then strum the E7 slowly, hit the B, and back into the verse.

You said you loved me and it broke my heart

I was always your prisoner right from the start

The nights you spend without me this house is like a dungeon

And you only return to torture me more

You must have your reasons, I will not ask

For you I will be the man in the iron mask

It ends with a variation of the verse, mostly playing an arpeggiated Em with

those little Am things... the last chord is an A (major) on the B&G (or maybe

B&D) strings.

-----------------------------------------------------

The Only One (Billy Bragg)

intro: E (7th) G#m (4th) C#m (4th) D#/B (main riff)

note: play main riff throughout all the verses

Sometimes when you lose your way to me

I think you don't care at all

If you don't get here soon

I'll tear that clock down from the wall

Your family and friends don't understand

They treat me so strange

The book you said to read

Well I have read but nothings changed

The clocks go forward the clocks go back

Yet here I sit as if I were the only one

(main riff)

And oh you cannot hear me

Oh you cannot hear me

Can anybody hear me out there

(main riff)

He's up on high horse again

You're down in the park

I'm left to fight my impulses alone here in the dark

The chain that fell off my bike last night

Is now wrapped round my heart

Sometimes I think that

Fate has been against us from the start

I long to let our love run free

Yet here I am a victim of geography

(main riff)

And oh you cannot hear me

Oh you cannot hear me

Can anybody hear me out there

She said kiss me or would you rather

Live in a land where the soap won't lather

(main riff)

And oh...

You know you are the only one

Yes you are the only one

Yes you are the only one

------------------------------------

The Short Answer

----------------

Between Marx and marzipan in the dictionary there was Mary

Between the deep blue sea and the devil that was me

If ever anyone could help me with my obsession with

The young Susannah York it was Mary

If my pink pyjamas she asked me for something

I gave her the short answer

She read our stars out load

And I knew then that we should have gone sailing

But we stayed home instead

Fighting on the waterbed

Like the honeymoon couple on drugs

Me and Mary

What happened in the past

Remained a mystery of natural history

She should have been the last

But she was just the latest

If she wanted to be a farmer's wife

I would endure that muddy life

I would dig for victory

And the sound of happy couples

Coupling happily in the dark

While you and I sat down to tea

I remember you said to me

That no amount of poetry

Would mend this broken heart

But you can put the Hoover round

If you want to make a start

All my friends from school

Introduce me to their spouses

While I'm left standing here

With my hands down the front of my trousers

I just don't know what's to be done

I wonder sometimes how did Dad meet Mum

And how did they conceive of me

Tell me Mary

The boys who came to the shop

Always made her laugh much more than I did

When I told her this must stop

She didn't bat an eyelid

She said you know honey it's such a shame

You'll never be any good at this game

You bruise too easily

So said Mary

Her two brothers took me out

Of circulation for the duration

So we went our separate ways but does she still love me

She still has my door key

Like a bully boy in a Benetton shop

You're never happy with what you've got

Till what you've got has gone

Sorry Mary

------------------------------------

Valentine's Day Is Over

(Billy Bragg)

 

Some day boy you'll reap what you've down

You'll catch a cold and you'll be on your own

And you will see that what's wrong with me

Is wrong with everyone that

You want to play your little games on

Poetry and flowers pretty words and threats

You've gone to the dogs again and I'm not placing bets

On you coming home tonight anything but blind

If you take me for granted then you must expect to find

Surprise, surprise

Valentine's Day is over, it's over

Valentine's Day is over

If you want to talk about it well you know where the phone is

Don't come round reminding me again how brittle bone is

God didn't make you angel the Devil made you a man

That brutality and the economy are related now I understand

When will you realize that as above so below there is no love

 

Valentine's Day is over, it's over

Valentine's Day is over

 

For the girl with hour glass figure

Time runs out very fast

We used to want the same things

But that's all in the past

And lately it seems that as it all gets tougher

Your ideal of justice just becomes rougher and rougher

 

Valentine's Day is over, it's over

Valentine's Day is over

Thank you for the things you bought me thank you for the card

Thank you for the things you taught me when you hit me hard

That love between two people must be based on understanding

Until that's true you'll find your things

All stacked out on the landing surprise, surprise

Valentine's Day is over, it's over

Valentine's Day is over, it's o-ver, it's o-ver, it's o-ver

---------------------------------

Waiting For the Great Leap Forwards

-----------------------------------

It may have been Camelot for Jack and Jacqueline

But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline

Fidel Castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying

Over luxury's disappointment

So he walks over and he's trying

To sympathize with her but thinks that he should warn her

That the Third World is just around the corner

In the Soviet Union a scientist is blinded

By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded

That Dr Robert Oppenheimer's optimism fell

At the first hurdle

In the Cheese Pavilion and the only noise I hear

Is the sound of people stacking chairs

And mopping up spilt beer

And someone asking questions and basking in the light

Of the fifteen fame filled minutes of the fanzine writer

Mixing Pop and Politics he asks me what the use is

I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses

While looking down the corridor

Out to where the van is waiting

I'm looking for the Great Leap Forwards

Jumble sales are organized and pamphlets have been posted

Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted

You can be active with the activists

Or sleep in with the sleepers

While you're waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

One leap forwards, two leaps back

Will politics get me the sack?

Here comes the future and you can't run from it

If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it

It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll

>From Top of the Pops to drawing the dole

If no one seems to understands

Start your own revolution, cut out the middleman

In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune

But this is reality so give me some room

So join the struggle while you may

The Revolution is just a t-shirt away

Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

-------------------------------------------

"Walk Away Renee"

She said it was just a figment of speech

And I said you mean 'figure'

And she said no 'figment' because she could never imagine it happening

But it did

When we first met, I played the shy-boy

When she spoke to me for the first time, my nose began to bleed

She guessed the rest

The next day we went on a bus ride to the ferry

And when nobody came to collect our fares, why I knew then this was

something special

I couldn't stop thinking about her

And everytime I switched on the radio, there was somebody else singing

a song about the two of us

It was just like being on a fast ride at Fun Fair- the sort you want to get off

because it's scary and then, as soon as you're off again, you want to

get straight back on again

But oh love is strange

And you have to learn to take the crunchy with the smooth I suppose

She began going out with Mr. Potato Head

It was when I saw her in the car park with his coat around her shoulders

I realized

I went home and thought about the two of them together until the bath

water went cold around me

I thought about her eyes and the curve of her breasts and about the point

where their bodies met

I confronted her about it

I said 'I'm the most illegible bachelor in town'

And she said 'Yea, that's why I can never understand any of those silly

letters you send me'

And then one day it happened

She cut her hair

And I stopped loving her.

Have fun, francois...

Universite de Montreal