Tender Prey
Transcribed by Andy Field. All comments & corrections
welcome...
Table of Contents:
The
Mercy Seat
Up
Jumped The Devil
Deanna
Watching
Alice
Mercy
City
Of Refuge
Slowly
Goes The Night
Sunday's
Slave
Sugar
Sugar Sugar
New
Morning
The Mercy Seat
There are some bizarre chords you will need for this song. There
doesn't exist proper titles for these chords (except Em) and so I
have labeled them with arbitrary symbols. The TAB shows each string
and the numbering refers to fret position. You will have to work out
which finger arrangements suit you best! An 'O' means the string is
'open' (i.e. you let the open string ring) whereas an 'X' means the
string must not be allowed to ring out (i.e. don't play it or dampen
it).
I worked this out from the 'Live seeds' version rather than 'Tender
Prey'
E|---O-------O------O------O------------------------
B|---O-------O------O------O------------------------
G|---O-------O------4------2------------------------
D|---2-------4------4------4------------------------
A|---2-------2------2------2------------------------
E|---O-------O------O------O------------------------
Em E* E^ E+
It began when they came and took me from my home ...
Em / E* / Em /E*
VERSE:
Em E* Em E*
I began to warm and chill to objects and their fields
Em E* Em E*
a ragged cup a twisted mop. the face of Jesus in my soup
Em E* Em E*
Those sinister dinner meals The meal trolly's wicked wheels
Em E* Em E*
A hooked bone rising from my food. All things either good or
ungood
CHORUS:
Em E^
And the mercy seat is waiting and I think my head is burning
E+ D Dm
and in a way I'm yearning to be done with all this measuring of
truth
F
an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth
C Em / E* / Em / E*
and anyway i told the truth and I'm not afraid to die
Repeat the chords for Verse and chorus over the
remaining lyrics
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Up Jumped The Devil
Fm
Fm
O my O my what a wretched life
Fm (Bass - C, Bb, G#, G,)
I was born on the day that my poor mother died
Fm
I was cut from her belly with a stanley knife
Cm
my daddy did a jig with the drunk midwife
Fm
whose that yonder all in flames
Cm
Dragging behind him a sack of chains
Fm
Whose that yonder all in flames
Cm Fm
Up jumped the devil and he staked his claim on me
Repeat this over remaining lyrics
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Deanna
(Bass - G, A, B, C)
C F C F C F
O Deanna Oh Deanna O deanna Sweet Dianna oh deanna
F C F
You know you are my frind now Oh deanna
D G
and I ain't down here for your money
D G
I ain't down here for your love
D G
I ain't down here for your love or money
C
I'm down here for your soul.
F C
No carpet on the floor
F C
and the winding cloth holds many moths
F C
around your ku klux furniture
F D
I cum a deaths-head in your frock
D G
we discuss the murder pact
D G
we discuss murder and the murder act
D G
murder takes the wheel of the Cadillac
None C
and death climbs in the back.
Repeat over remaining verses
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Watching Alice
Eb G# Bb
Alice wakes it is morning she is yawning
Eb
as she walks about the room
Cm F G# Bb Gm (tremelo!)
Her hair falls down her breast, she is naked and it is June.
Eb F
Standing at the window
D Gm
I wonder if she knows that I can see.
Gm D Gm / Eb /Gm
Watching Alice rise year after year
Gm D Gm / Eb / D
Up in her palace she's captive there.
Eb G#
Alice's Body is golden brown ...
etc.
Same chord pattern over harmonica solo
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Mercy
Fm C Fm C
I stood in the water in the middle month of winter
Fm C Bbm G# Fm / C /
My camel skin was torture I was in a state of nature
C Fm C Fm / C
The wind sir it was wicked, I was so alone
C Bbm G# Fm
Just as I predicted My followers were gone
Fm C#
and I cried Mercy, have mercy on me
Eb Fm
and I got down on my knees
Repeat and change to Bbm for the final piano bit before the last
verse
Couldn't make up my mind if this was in the key of Fm or F#m on the
record - they seemed to have tuned their instruments about halfway
between the two just to confuse me.
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City of Refuge
Em
You better run blah blah blah
G F
You better Run to the city of refuge
Em
You better run
Em
You stand before your maker in a state of shame
Em (Bass - C,B,A,B)
because your robes are covered in mud
Em
while you kneel at the feet of a woman of the street
G F Em
the gutters will run with blood they will run with blood
Em G F
You better run, You better run, You better run to the city of
refuge
Em G F
You better run, You better run, You better run to the city of
refuge
Em
In the days of madness my brother, my sister
Em (Bass - A,G,A,B)
when you're dragged toward the hell mouth
Em
you will beg for the end but there ain't gonna be one, friend
G F Em
for the grave will spew you out It will spew you out.
Repeat over remaining lyrics.
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Slowly Goes The Night
Eb / Bb / Eb / Bb / - over spoken intro
Verse:
Bb Eb Bb Eb / Bb
Lover lover goodbye, so slowly goes the night
Bb Cm
Next to me lies your body plan
F
like a map of some forbidden land
(EbEb, DD, CC, BbBb, AA, GG, FF - double notes on bass only - Bugger
knows
what the guitar does!)
I trace the ghosts of your bones with my trembling hand
Fm Cm Fm Cm
Dark is my night but darker is my day, yeah
G# Bb
I must've been blind out of my mind
Gm G#
not to read the warning signs
Fm Gm D
How goes it, it goes lonely, it goes slowly.
Repeat over remaining verses.
I have to confess that this was an absolute sod to try and work
out.
I am pretty sure some of it is wrong and I'd be really glad to
get
feedback on this especially if anyone has any better ideas!
Still,
it was the best I could do without spending ridiculous amounts of
time
on this.
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Sunday's Slave
Cm Fm
Sunday's got a slave Monday's got one too
Cm Fm
Sunday's got a slave Monday has got one too
Bb Eb Bb Cm
Our sufferings are countless, Our pleasures are a motley few
Bb Eb Bb Cm
Spend all day digging my grave Now go get sunday's slave
Repeat
C# Cm
The hands in the stable are willing and able to pay
C#
If you feel at a loss man just who is the boss-man
Cm (Bb) Cm
Ask the blood on one of its bad days
Bb Eb Bb Cm
for his nerve is to serve but the service is a fucking mockery
Bb Eb Bb Cm
He insists that he piss in your fist but he takes the money
anyway
Bb Eb Bb Cm
The masters a bastard but don't tell sunday's slave.
*Back to beginning*
Eb Bb Eb Bb Eb Bb Cm
But not on sundays, never on sundays, oh not on sundays slave
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Sugar, Sugar, Sugar
Cm / Cm /
Cm
Sugar sugar sugar that man is bad,
Gm
the road he drives you down oh sugar it's a drag
Gm
That road it twists that road is crossed
Cm
it's down that road a lot of girls get lost
Cm
Sugar sugar sugar keep on driving on
Gm
until the city of right becomes the city of wrong
Gm
That stretch is long you'll slip and slide
Cm
that stretch will find you gagged and tied
etc.
It's the same two chords for the rest of the song .....
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New Morning
(E, F#) G C G
One morn I awakened. A new sun was Rising
Em D
The sky was a kingdom all covered in blood
G C G
The moon and the stars where the troops that lay conquered
Am C G (Bass - C,B,A,G)
Like fruit left to wither poor spiritual food
G C G
and the spears of the bright sun all brave with its conquest
Em D
did hover unearthly in banners of fire
G C G
I knelt in the garden awash with the dawning
Am C G (Bass - C, B, A, G)
and a voice came so brightly I covered my eyes.
G C G
Thank you for giving this bright new morning
Em D
so steeped seemed the evening in darkness and blood
G G (Bass - G,A,B,C) C G
there'll be no sadness, no sorro there'll be no road too narrow
D G (Bass - C, B, A, G)
there'll be a new day and it's today for us.
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***************************************************************
Footnotes -
Usual things;
1) Sorry for not including all the lyrics but it takes me long enough
to type in as it is and I assume that if I give you the main song
structure you can work out how the rest goes for yourself by
following the album.
2) Sorry for typos in the lyrics!
3) I am not a professional musician and I do not have access to
Cavey's Brain which means that some of these chords may be wrong (I
am only human after all!) I have done my best but welcome suggestions
or corrections from anyone.
4) Letters in Brackets are notes rather than full chords.
5) If you got something out of these then mail me - it encourages me
to do more
I sincerely hope that my efforts will give some of you a bit of
pleasure playing along with Nick Cave.
Love, as ever,
Andy
(andy f@cogs.susx.ac.uk)
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