#----------------------------PLEASE NOTE-----------------------------#
# This represents the author's own work and interpretation of the #
# song. To be used only for private study, scholarship, or research. #
#--------------------------------------------------------------------#
Artist: The Decemberists
Album: 5 Songs EP
Song: My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist
[http://www.indieguitartabs.com/bands/decemberists/03_mymother.html]
Riff:
Am Am/E Am Am/E (Riff) (x4) G------2--
D--0h2----
Am Am/E Am/B C D G Em D/F#
My mother was a Chinese trapeze artist in prewar Paris
Am Am/E Am/B Am/C D D#dim Em Em9 Em Em7 Em
Smug - gl - ing bombs for the underground
Am Am/E D D/A B B/F# C C/G
And she met my father at a fete in Aix-en-Provence
C C/G D D/A Em Em9 Em Em7 Em
He was disguised as a Russian cadet, in the employ of the Axis
C C/G C (Riff)
And there in the half-light of the provincial midnight
G G/B G G/A G/B
To a lone concertina they drank in cantinas
C C/G D D/A Em Em9 Em Em7 Em
And toasted to Edith Piaf and the fall of the Reich
Em/A Em/B C C/G D Am Am/E Am Am/E
My sister was born in a hovel in Burgundy, and left for the cattle
But later was found by a communist
Who'd deserted his ranks to follow his dream
To start up a punk rock band in South Carolina
I get letters sometimes, they bought a plantation
She weeds the tobacco, he offends the nation
And they write, don't be a stranger, y'hear, sincerely, your sister
Em/A Em/B C C/G D Am Am/E Am Am/E
So my parents had me to the disgust of the prostitutes, on a bed in a brothel
Surprisingly raised with tender care
'Til the money got tight and they bet me away
To a blind brigadier in a game of high stakes canasta
But he made me a sailor on his brigadier ship fleet
I know every yardarm from main mast to jib sheet
C C/G D D/A D D/A C C/G C C/G
But sometimes I long to be landlocked and to work in a bakery
Em Em/B Em Em/B Am Am/E Am Am/E
Em Em/B Em Em/B C C/G D D/A Am