Artist: The Decemberists
Album: Castaways and Cutouts
Song: A Cautionary Tale
Dm Dm/A (x4)
Dm Dm/A Dm Dm/A Gm Gm Gm Gm
There's a place your mother goes when everybody else is soundly sleeping
Dm Dm/A Dm Dm/A Gm Gm
Through the lights of Beacon street and if you listen you can hear her weeping
A A A A
She's weeping, ‘cause
Bb Bb/F Bb Bb/F F F F F
The gentlemen are calling and the snow is softly falling on her petticoats
Bb Bb/F Bb Bb/F F F
And she's standing in the harbour and she's waiting for the sailors in the jolly boat
A A A/G A/F A/E
See how they approach
With dirty hands and trousers torn they grapple 'til she's safe within their keeping
A gag is placed between her lips to keep her sorry tongue from any speaking,
Or screaming
And they row her out to packets where the sailor's sorry racket calls for maidenhead
And she's scarce above the gunwales when her clothes fall to a bundle and she's laid in
A A/G A/F
Bed / on the upper deck
Dm A Gm A
La la la la...
And so she goes from ship to ship, her ankles clasped, her arms so rudely pinioned
'Til at last she's satisfied the lot of the marina's teeming minions, in their opinion
And they tell her not to say a thing to cousin, kindred,kith or kin or she'll end up dead
And they throw her thirty dollars and return her to the harbor where she goes to bed,
A A A/G A/F
And this is how you’re fed
Bb A Bb
So be kind to your mother, though she may seem an awful bother, and the next time she
A Dm/A Dm
Tries to feed you collard greens, remember what she does when you're asleep
#----------------------------PLEASE NOTE-----------------------------#
# This represents the author's own work and interpretation of the #
# song. To be used only for private study, scholarship, or research. #
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