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Sleep Of The Just

Elvis Costello

Text File

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

G                                   Bm
The soldier asked my name and did I come here very often
       Em                               C
Well I thought that he was asking me to dance
      G                     Bm
In my holy coat and hat and him in his red bonnet
          Em                          C
We'd have made a lovely couple but we never had the chance

[chorus:]
G                    C
And now you say that you've got to go
G                    C
Well if you must you must
G              C            D            G   C   G   D
I suppose that you need the sleep of the just

Well it was a powerful day and there were black crows in the road
And I kept my strong opinions to my chest
I suppose I should have told them that I was on fire for you
When the bus burst into flames outside some place, 'The Poet's Rest'

[Repeat chorus; come out like this:]  G  C  G  G7

  C                                       Bm
A girl woke up in a naked light and said
        C                                           G
He even looked like her brother in the army but she never mentions him
         B7                                    Em
He'll be tucked up in his bed tonight with his dirty-pictures girl
        C
Saying, 'You're some mother's daughter you know or is it

D      D/C  D/B  D/A
immaterial girl?'

Now she's pinned up upon the barracks wall in her home town
All the soldiers taking turns with their attentions
And as they speculate what she'd look like beneath that thin nightgown
His family pride was rising up as he cast his eyes down

[Last chorus:  come out of it with Em then repeat verse chords
to fade]