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The Curse

Josh Ritter

Text File

Check out the beautiful video for this song on NPR's website:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127220892

Thanks to Don Tago for posting the chords.
This is just a small elaboration on them.

This song is a waltz (3/4 time), so on a guitar you just hit the tonic on the
first beat and then the rest of the chord on the second and third beats.  The
chords here are F(133211), Dm(xx0231 / xx3231), Am(x02210), and C/G(332010).
To keep things a little more interesting and melodic, the bass note moves
through the song:

F     F     Dm    Dm    Am    Am    C     C/G   
--1-1---1-1---1-1---1-1---0-0---0-0---0-0---0-0---|
--1-1---1-1---3-3---3-3---1-1---1-1---1-1---1-1---|
--2-2---2-2---2-2---2-2---2-2---2-2---0-0---0-0---|
------------0-----3-----2-------------------------|
------3-----------------------0-----3-------------|
1-----------------------------------------3-------|

This pattern repeats through the whole song


   F         F               Dm           Dm
He opens his eyes, falls in love at first sight 
         Am   Am         C   C/G
With the girl    in the doorway 
     F         F      Dm          Dm
What beautiful lines, how full of life
      Am           Am           C            C/G
After thousands of years what a face to wake up to 
   F            F           Dm          Dm
He holds back a sigh as she touches his arm 
    Am            Am             C             C/G
She dusts off the bed where till now he's been sleeping 
      F        F                Dm         Dm
Under miles of stone, the dried fig of his heart 
      Am         Am          C           C/G
Under scarab and bone starts back to its beating 


She carries him home in a beautiful boat 
He watches the scene from a porthole in stowage 
And he can hear all she says as she sits by his bed 
And one day his lips answer her in her own language 
The days quickly pass, he loves making her laugh 
The first time he moves it's her hair that he touches 
She asks, "are you cursed?" he says "I think that I'm cured"
Then he talks of the Nile and the girls in Bulrushes 


In New York he is laid in a glass covered case 
He pretends he is dead, people crowd round to see him 
But each night she comes round and the two wander down 
The halls of the tomb that she calls a museum 
Often he stops to rest, but then less and less 
Then it's her that looks tired, staying up asking questions 
He learns how to read from the papers that she 
Is writing about him and he makes corrections 
It's his face on her book, more and more come to look 
Families from Iowa, Upper Westsiders 
Then one day it's too much, he decides to get up 
And as chaos ensues he walks outside to find her 
She's using a cane and her face looks too pale 
But she's happy to see him, as they walk he supports her 
She asks, "are you cursed?", but his answer's obscured 
In a sandstorm of flash bulbs and rowdy reporters 


Such reanimation, the two tour the nation 
He gets out of limos, he meets other women 
He speaks of her fondly, their nights in the museum 
But she's just one more rag now he's dragging behind him 
She stops going out, she just lies there in bed 
In hotels in whatever towns they are speaking 
Then her face starts to set, her hands start to fold 
Then one day the dried fig of her heart stops it's beating 


Long ago in the ship, she asked, "why pyramids?" 
He said think of them as an immense invitation 
She asked, "are you cursed?" he says, "I think that I'm cured" 
Then he kissed her and hoped that she'd forget that question

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The Curse

Josh Ritter