#----------------------------------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@gartfrets.net) 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 I...it took years... VERSE1: Chords: D#m x68876 A#m7 686666 or xx6666 G#m7 464444 or xx4444 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 leaden...kinda 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] VERSE2: Chords: G#m7 464444 or xx4444 A#m7 686666 or xx6666 D#m x68876 G#m7 A#m7 D#m Maybe it was the time...that I started exploring...that 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---------------| |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| |---------------------------------| | 1 - & - 2 - & - 3 - & - 4 - & - | VERSE3: [Guitar Figure 1] Not in a hurry...but 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 scarcity...and powdered milk, maybe, D#m A#m7 Of scarcity...and 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 had...all 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 scarcity...you could smell the... [play D#m - A#m7] [x2] D#m A#m7 D#m Different from the States...kind 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 things...didn'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 now...isn'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 the...each time we come back...they've renovated... D#m G#m7 Each time they tear down another block of those ancient, scarce, D#m A#m7 sinister apartments...dark, 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 the...to appreciate the thick and... D#m A#m7 D#m And that architect...that 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]