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The Curse

Josh Ritter

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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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