Counting Crows – God Of Ocean Tides (Guitar)

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Chords

Dan fingerpicks this song. I have tabbed out the intro because it gives a pretty good representation of the pattern and variations he uses throughout the song. The bass is played by alternating the thumb between the lowest and second lowest string every 1/4 note. When he does the walkdown during the verses ("And I buy all my days"), he seems to only hit the bass note of each chord so I have notated it as such. In the "chorus", for lack of a better term, the D-G-D-G parts ("All night long"), he strums the chords. Now on to the bridge. It gets sort of difficult here because the second guitar starts playing a big part and there is also more occasional strumming. At "colored lights", a very distinctive picking pattern appears and I have written it out there. The chord names represent those picking patterns until the end of the bridge, at which point you can return to normal chord forms. You can barre the first two forms but make sure not to hit that D string. Sorry if it is confusing, but I promise I could have made it much worse. I hope my tab does this beautiful song justice. *Lyrics adapted from LyricsMania.com [Intro]
  C
e|----------------|-------0-------|---------------|-----------------|
B|--1---------0---|-3---------3---|-----------0---|-----------------|
G|--------0-------|---------------|-------0-------|-------0---------|
D|------2-------2-|-----2-------2-|-----2-------2-|-----2-----2---2-|
A|--3-------3-----|-3-------3-----|-3-------3-----|-3-------3---3---|
E|----------------|---------------|---------------|-----------------|
[Verse 1]
G
Close the door on a short night

D
Lift the lid on the daylight

Em                 C
6:09 West Tennessee time
C /B /A G And I buy all my days
G      D                                   C
At the same place where the girl sells her nights
C /B /A G To a God of ocean tides. [Chorus]
D   G     D
All night long,

G       C            G
Writing poems to California

Em
Melodies of failure

        Am
And the people I have thrown

    D    G   D      G         C           G
A - way, meanwhile, somewhere west of Carolina

     Em
In a congregation of strangers

       A7
We are digging holes to China

        C
Then we pray to our reflections

       C
In the water when it rises.
[Verse 2]
       G
I said headlights pin the highway down

D
Jesus spins the world around

         Em                            C
And I’ll spend all my tomorrows coming down
C /B /A G Goodbye all my days.
         D
I know I said I never loved you

      C          C    /B     /A     G
But I might just try again tonight.
[Bridge]
D/B             C
Truck stops and river gods

    D               G
Gas stations of the Cross

D
Following a ghost,

Am
Following a ghost,

  C              D
I pray the water wash away

    Em        D       Cmaj7
The memories and the cost.

D          G           Cadd9
Carry me south, to the sea

D/E             G           Cmaj7
Along with your memories of me

       D           G
We are born in the water
G /A /B Cadd9 And I will re-turn to Thee.
  Csus2
e|----3-------3-----|----3-------3-----|----3-------3-----|----3-------3-----|
B|--------3-------3-|--------3-------3-|--------3-------3-|--------3-------3-|
G|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
D|------5-------5---|------5-------5---|------5-------5---|------5-------5---|
A|--3-------3-------|--3-------3-------|--3-------3-------|--3-------3-------|
E|------------------|------------------|------------=-----|------------=-----|

  G5/D
e|----3-------3-----|----3-------3-----|----3-------3-----|----3-------3-----|
B|--------3-------3-|--------3-------3-|--------3-------3-|--------3-------3-|
G|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
D|------5-------5---|------5-------5---|------5-------5---|------5-------5---|
A|--5-------5-------|--5-------5-------|--5-------5-------|--5-------5-------|
E|------------------|------------------|------------=-----|------------=-----|

  G(2)
e|----7-------7-----|----7-------7-----|----7-------7-----|----7-------7-----|
B|--------8-------8-|--------8-------8-|--------8-------8-|--------8-------8-|
G|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
D|------9-------9---|------9-------9---|------9-------9---|------9-------9---|
A|--10-----10-------|--10------10------|--10-----10-------|--10------10------|
E|------------------|------------------|------------=-----|------------=-----|

Csus2
Colored lights

    G5/D
And birthday cakes

Csus2
Candle wax

   G(2)
On paper plates.

Csus2
Breathe the water

G(2)
Hush-a-bye, hush-a-bye.

        Csus2
You can see through water

                      G(2)
All the way up to the sky.
[Verse 3]
G
Gods of water, gods of rain

D
Cover up the sun again

       Em                         C
We are crossing at the Mississippi line
C /B /A G And I tried all my days
D                                    C
To love you just the way you hoped I might,
C /B /A G But I’m leaving here to-night.
  D
I can’t remember yesterday

  C           C      /B  /A  G
I tried, if I said I could

G
I lied.
[Outro] Em7 Em7(2) Cmaj7 C Cmaj7 Cadd9 (Strummed end riff) [Chords] Verse/Chorus C X32010 G 320033 D XX0232 Em 022000 Am X02210 A7 X02020 Bridge D/B X2023X Cmaj7 X32000 Cadd9 X32030 D/E 0X0232 Csus2 X35X33
G5/D         X55X33
G(2)         X(10)9X87
Outro
Em7          020000
Em7(2)       020003