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Texas 19

Guy Clark

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.#
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------#

Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 15:32:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: "T. Hickson" 
Subject: c/clark_guy/texas_1947.crd

Song:  Texas 1947
Artist:  Guy Clark
Transcribed by:  T. Hickson

>From the album "Keepers" (track 2), a live album.  I'm probably missing a
lot of the subtleties, but it's a nice, easy way to play it.  Guy makes
the verses build as if a train is approaching and passing you by, but you
gotta hear it to make it work.


___________________________________________________________

Em
Now bein' six years old
    G
I'd seen some trains before,
        A
so it's hard to figure out
         B            Em
what I'm at the depot for.


Em
Trains are big and black and smokin' steam,
G
screamin' at the wheels,
A
bigger than anything there is,
         B                  Em
at least that's the way she feels


           B
Trains are big and black and smokin',

louder than July four,
    A
but everybody's actin' like
     B                  Em
this might be somethin' more...


Em
...than just pickin' up the mail
       G
or the soldiers from the war,
        A
this is somethin' that even old man Wileman (?)
B             Em
never seen before.

BRIDGE:
         F#m
And it's late afternoon

on a hot Texas day,
                     A
somethin' strange is goin' on
         B          Em
and we's all in the way.


Em
Well there's fifty or sixty people
          G
they're just sittin' on their cars,
        A
and the old men left their dominoes
         B                  Em
and they come down from the bars.


Em
Everybody's checkin',
         G
old Jack Kittrel(?) checked his watch,
       A
and us kids put our ears
       B                 Em
to the rails to hear 'em pop.


   B
So we already knowed

when they finally said 'train time'
        A
you'd a-thought that Jesus Christ himself
    B                Em
was rollin' down the line.


Em
Cuz things got real quiet,
G
Momma jerked me back,
A
not before I'd got the chance
         B             Em
to lay a nickel on the track.


CHORUS:

E
Look out here she comes, she's comin',
A
Look out there she goes, she's gone,
B
screamin' straight through Texas
       A         E
like a mad dog cyclone.
B
Big, red, and silver,

she don't make no smoke,
        A
she's a fast-rollin' streamline
B                E
come to show the folks.
E
Look out here she comes, she's comin'
A
Look out there she goes, she's gone,
B
screamin' straight through Texas
       A         E
like a mad dog cyclone.

Em
...Lord, she never even stopped.

Em
She left fifty or sixty people
      G
still sittin' on their cars,
            A
and they're wonderin' what it's comin' to
    B               Em
and how it got this far.


Em
Oh but me I got a nickel smashed
G
flatter than a dime
     A
by a mad dog, runaway
    B             Em
red-silver streamline...train


CHORUS:

___________________________________________________________

CHORDS ONLY, BY VERSE:

V1:

Em  G  A  B  Em

V2:

Em  G  A  B  Em


V3:
B  A  B  Em

V4:
Em  G  A  B  Em

Bridge:

F#m  A  B  Em

V5:
Em  G  A  B  Em

V6:
Em  G  A  B  Em

V7:
B  A  B  Em

V8:
Em  G  A  B  Em

CHORUS:

E  A  B  A  E

B  A  B  E

E  A  B  A  E

Em

V9:
Em  G  A  B  Em

V10:

Em  G  A  B  Em

CHORUS:

E  A  B  A  E

B  A  B  E

E  A  B  A  E