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I Can Tell

John Wesley Harding

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. #
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------##
From: rkh2@ukc.ac.uk

Title:		   I Can Tell (When You're Telling Lies)
		   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Artist:				     John Wesley Harding

from the album "The Name Above The Title"

Key: G major
~~~~~~~~~~~~
D	      G C D	       C       G		\
	I can tell when you're telling lies;		 |
	      C             Am      D			 |
	I can see it in your  tired eyes.		 |
	      G C D	       C       G		 |
	I can tell when you're telling lies;		  \ CHORUS
	      C		     Am		  D		  / ~~~~~~
	I can see it in your lack of surprise.		 |
      Em      C			 Am	       D	 |
	I can see just where the truth doesn't lie,	 |
		 Em	 C	 Am	       D	 |
	Watching you cut through the bind that ties.	/

     Em
	Once upon a time, a story with a happy end,
     C		       Am	   C		 D
	But that's all in the past, that's all around the bend,
     Em
	You can't appease me now, those stupid things you said,
     C			Am		 C		  D
	And you can't please me now, and we can't start again.
		D			  C
	There's too much history, there's no clean sheets,
		D			C
	When I get to hear his story it puts my feet to sleep;
	     Am		D		D	  Em
	It's automatic nothing 'bout a heart in a rage,
	 C		 Am		      C			 D
	Murdered by some cartoon villain who ripped out the last page.

	< C H O R U S >


     Em
	Happy ever after, prince apparent and his bride;
     C             Am	       C	   D
	All his disarming charm and her unfaithful sighs.
     Em
	He's scouting for success, and she's his girl guide.
     C		    Am		     C		   D
	The day the die was cast, it was the day I died.
	D				C
	Now your hits are up for grabs, now the chips are down,
	    D				    C
	You could be jetting with the set instead of with that clown
	    Am		 D		    D		    Em
	You wanted to be on a bridge; all bridges should be burned;
	     C		      Am		     C		       D
	Sometimes you must re-cross and that's something you've never learned.

	< C H O R U S >


     B7
	There are some tricks that you can't pull,
		   C		Cmaj7	Am  Am  Am7 Am7
	I mean the wool that is over my eyes.
     D
	That's what happens when looking for love
	   G		  C    D
	Becomes a game of I spy.
	   C		      Am				\
      	I know you're combing someone's hair			 |
	    D		       Em				 |
	Or someone's soothing you;				  \ DRUMS
	   C	  Cmaj7	     Am					  / ONLY
	A lie may well fool someone else			 |
		C		  D				 |
	But it tells the truth about you to you.    So		/

	      G C D		C	G
	I can tell when you're telling lies;
	      C		    Am	    D
	I can see it in your  tired eyes.
	      G C D		C	G
	I can tell when you're telling lies;
	      C		     Am		  D
	I can see it in your lack of surprise;

	      G C D		C	G
	I can tell when you're telling lies;
	      C		    Am
	I can see it in your  tired eyes.
	      G C D	       C      G
	I can tell where your talent lies;
	      C		     Am		  D
	I can see it in your lack of surprise;

     Em	       C		 Am		D
 	I can see just where the truth doesn't lie
		 Em	    C	 Am		D    G
	Watching you cut through the bind that ties.


		========================

CHORDS:
~~~~~~

      G chord			     D chord

 e||---|---|-o-|  G        e||---|-o-|-----|  F#
 B||---|---|---|  B        B||---|---|-o---|  D
 G||---|---|---|  G        G||---|-o-|-----|  A
 D||---|---|---|  D        D||---|---|-----|  D
 A||---|-o-|---|  B        A||---|---|-----|  A
 E||---|---|-o-|  G        E||---|-x-|-----|  either use thumb on 2nd fret
						 or don't play bass-E string


      C chord			     Am chord

 e||---|---|---|  E        e||---|---|-----|  E
 B||-o-|---|---|  C        B||-o-|---|-----|  C
 G||---|---|---|  G        G||---|-o-|-----|  A
 D||---|-o-|---|  E        D||---|-o-|-----|  E
 A||---|---|-o-|  C        A||---|---|-----|  A
 E||---|---|---|  E        E||---|---|-----|  E

      Em chord			     B7 chord

 e||---|---|---|  E        e||---|-o-|-----|  F#
 B||---|---|---|  B        B||---|---|-----|  B
 G||---|---|---|  G        G||---|-o-|-----|  A
 D||---|-o-|---|  E        D||-o-|---|-----|  D#
 A||---|-o-|---|  B        A||---|-o-|-----|  B
 E||---|---|---|  E        E||---|-x-|-----|  either use thumb on 2nd fret
						 or don't play bass-E string


    Cmaj7 chord			    Am7 chord
 e||---|---|---|  E        e||---|---|-----|  E
 B||---|---|---|  B        B||-o-|---|-----|  C
 G||---|---|---|  G        G||---|---|-----|  G
 D||---|-o-|---|  E        D||---|-o-|-----|  E
 A||---|---|-o-|  C        A||---|---|-----|  A
 E||---|---|---|  E        E||---|---|-----|  E

N.B. Don't try playing a G chord the way it's shown in the photo in the sleeve
     notes of The Name Above The Title!!


Playing Notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Play the opening D chord before you launch into the song.
2. Learn the rhythm of the part that goes "the bind that ties" and strum the
   triplet in time with the words.
3. You may wish to change the chords for the equivalent parts of the verse to
   "It's automatic nothing 'bout a heart in a rage" so that they become
   (C, Am, D, Em) instead of (Am, D, D, Em) as in the above transcription.
4. I've included chords for the last verse where it goes to drums only for
   those of you who are unaccompanied.  These are best if strummed lightly
   and once each.
5. After the `drums only' bit, don't forget to say "So" before you move on to
   the final chorus section.  On the other hand, don't wet yourself if you
   forget!
6. The words in a few places could easily be heard as many things.  I think
   this is pretty much as Wes sings it, but "telling" does sound a lot like
   "talent", what about "unfaithful SIZE (?)", "you wanted to be UNABRIDGED",
   or "sometimes you must be CROSSED"?


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