Beck – Feel The Strain Of Sorrow Never Ceasing (Guitar)

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Chords

There is only one known performance of this song (live on the Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show on KCRW on January 6, 1995). It's not on any album, but you can find it on YouTube. The picking, the number of bars, and the timing are pretty free, as you would expect from a song (supposedly) from the 19th century. Also, the words are sometimes hard to hear. In the recording, the guitar is tuned down half a step. [Chords] Am x02210 G 320003 Em 022000 A x02220 C/G 332010 F 133211 D xx0232 Going from Am to G is usually done by walking over F# in the bass. G 320003 often alternates with G 320033. Em 022000 often alternates with Em7 022030.
The chords are not strummed but picked. The pattern is something like this (feel free to vary),
here tabbed for Am:
  Am
e|----0-----------0-----------0--- ------0---------0-----------0---|
B|----------1--------------------- 1---------1-----------1---------|
G|-------------------------------- ------------2-----------2-------|
D|----2-------2-------2-------2--- ----2-------2-------2-------2---|
A|0-------0-------0-------0------- 0-------0-------0-------0-------|
E|-------------------------------- --------------------------------|
[Intro] Am Am Am Am Am G G G G Em Em Em Am Am Am Am [Verse 1]
       Am            Am                  Am                  G       G
On the old forgotten crossways where the fourteen rivers did meet

    Em           Em          Em           A         A
The bones of our elders were lying in the street

       Am             Am     Am                G       G       G
On the dark and dusty desert like a ghost I've flown

  Em               Em               Em            A       A       A       A
I barely cried wherever I'd ride, I never found a home
[Chorus]
Am  Am  C/G C/G   F                  F            D  A       A
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  feel the strain of sorrow never ceasing

Am  Am  C/G C/G   F                  F            D  A       A       A
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  feel the strain of sorrow never ceasing
Am Am Am Am [Verse 2]
  Am      Am         Am              G       G
I am a ramshackle, I go from town to town

    Em                Em         Em              A         A
And where there is no shelter, I lay down on the ground

  Am           Am          Am             G       G       G
I killed every reason they gave for me to stay

Em                  Em                  Em                  A         A
Cussed them all and burned the bone and dragged that thing away
[Chorus]
Am  Am  C/G C/G       F                 F            D  A       A       A
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  you feel the peace of sorrow never ceasing

Am  Am  C/G C/G       F                  F            D  A       A       A       A
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  you feel the strain of sorrow never ceasing
Am Am Am Am [Verse 3]
        Am                  Am               Am              G       G
There's saints and there is animals, they've taken what they could

         Em             Em       Em                A         A
And it's written in the pages to do just like they should

     Am                 Am                  Am                  G       G
They stood the test and burned the rest and tore them limb from limb

         Em                Em          Em               A         A
And it's marked upon their faces, it's written on their skin
[Chorus]
Am  Am  C/G C/G   F                  F            D  A       A
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  feel the strain of sorrow never ceasing

Am  Am  C/G C/G   F                  F            D  A
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  feel the strain of sorrow never ceasing