Chords

#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE-------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents his interpretation of the #
#song You may only use this file for private study, scholarship or research#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------#

Song title:       "London"
Original Album:	  -
Bootleg Album:    Bush Hall, Shepherd's Bush, London, 29/02/2012

Words and Music by Jonathan Richman
Copyright 2012 Jonathan Richman

Transcribed by Gavin Chart (contactus@gartfretsnet)


NOTES:
This was transcribed from JR's gig at Bush Hall, London on 29/02/2012
A sort of travelogue about London that, legend has it, was made up
on the spot! It certainly seemed that way JR at his comedic best, complete
with deliberately mis-pronounced place-names

The lyrics below are verbatim The chords seem to be D#m, A#m7 and G#m7
Check it out on YouTube


INTRO:
                             D#m (arpeggioed)
When I first came to London, 
  A#m                                 D#m
I thought it was so stiff and conservative
    A#m            G#m         A#m              D#m
The more I came to London, the more Iit took years


VERSE:
                       D#m       A#m7
The more I got to appreciate its air of mystery,
 D#m                          A#m7
Appreciate its thick, strange air of mystery,

                  G#m7                A#m7
First then it was just leaden tasting tap-water,
  G#m7              A#m7                   G#m7
A sort of mouldy strange, mould-tasting tap-water
        A#m7              G#m7
And the city first didn't seem above it 
   A#m7
It seemed kinda in a strait-jacket
          G#m7                 D#m
it seemed kinda leadenkinda leaden


[play these chords a couple of times:  D#m - A#m7
  add the 1st str at the 9th fret with
  the little finger for some variation]

 
VERSE:
G#m7                  A#m7                    D#m
     Maybe it was the timethat I started exploringthat changed it
                                  A#m7
When I started walking up Mary le Bone Road, there
                G#m7
East of all the BBC stuff by Portsmouth stuff
                                            A#m7
East by that little park with the statue of Pan
                                        D#m
Once I'd gone east of there, everything changed


[play Guitar Figure 1]   [x2]

Guitar Figure 1

   D#m
|-------6-------6-----|
|-----7---7---7---7---|
|*--8-------8--------*|
|*-------------------*|
|---------------------|
|---------------------|


VERSE:
[Guitar Figure 1]
Not in a hurrybut it changed
Not obviously, but it had a slow, subtle effect on me
      G#m7           A#m7               [GF1]
And I      opened up      and I started       to be swept up
in a sort of a mystery
A#m7                                       D#m           A#m7
Wanting to get lost in this place of those rows of brick houses,

Because

D#m                      A#m7                          D#m7
All of a sudden past the BBC, all of a sudden past the statue of Pan,
          A#m7                     G#m7
Something started on Mary Le Bone
A#m7                    D#m     A#m7
   An inkling of a past time
   D#m                                 A#m7
Of scarcityand powdered milk, maybe, 
   D#m            A#m7                       
Of scarcityand powdered potato feeling,
  D#m          A#m7                    G#m7
A scarcity and cold I smelt all the cold


  A#m7                         G#m7
I started up and smelt all the cold and realised that
    A#m7    D#m              A#m7               G#m7
The city hadall these atmospheres of another time
A#m7                             G#m7               
    A time when it took a lot of soul to live, because it must of
A#m7                    D#m     A#m7  
    You could smell the scarcityyou could smell the


[play D#m - A#m7]   [x2]


D#m                          A#m7         D#m
    Different from the Stateskind of a smell, 
            A#m7           D#m                        A#m7
Not just of poverty but of SCARCITY and saving things
         D#m       A#m7            G#m7  A#m7
It was intriguing    So, I went east

G#m7                                             A#m7
     Didn't walk that far but I started to walk
                                              D#m
Towards the borders of thingsdidn't get to ???
                       A#m7                      D#m
The East-End was still  late 70s and early 80s there was still more of it
                A#m7                 D#m
Than there is nowisn't that true?
                                     G#m7
Yes or no? I'm asking you a question


[Instrumental]


            A#m7
I'm still intrigued now by that part of town
                              D#m            A#m7
I see theeach time we come backthey've renovated
               D#m                              G#m7
Each time they tear down another block of those ancient, scarce,
                                                D#m          A#m7
sinister apartmentsdark, dingy places that intrigue me

                                            D#m               A#m7
There's not really much more to this little thing than that
                                        D#m                 A#m7
Just a little travelogue into theto appreciate the thick and
                  D#m     A#m7             D#m
And that architectthat Hawksmoor guy
               A#m7
Those funereal things hanging around
                     G#m7
There's some kind of strange going on here, I can't quite put
                                     A#m7
Whatever it is but there's something funny going on round here
        D#m      A#m7
And not there


[end on arpeggioed D#m]


CHORDS:
D#m    668876
A#m7   686666 or xx6666
G#m7   464444 or xx4444