Elvis Costello – Red Cotton (Guitar)
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Chords
Artist: Elvis Costello
Song: Red Cotton
Album: Secret Profane and Sugarcane
Tabbed by: Tom Haines
Email corrections to: [email protected]
[Intro]
G D
C G
G D
C G
[Chorus 1]
G D C G I'm cutting up her pure white dress G D That I dyed red C G That I dyed red G D C G I'm putting scraps in cheap tin lockets G D C G What time erases and memory mocks G Bm C G I'll send them over the ocean foam E Am Bm C D G Right into those gentle European homes
[Verse 1]
G Am The slave ship "Blessing" slipped from Liverpool D G B Over the waves the Royal Navy rules Em Am To go and plunder the Kingdom of Benin Em B7 Em Where certain history ends and shame begins G Am Dahomey traders paid in powder and shot D G B Line up their prisoners and they sell them in lots Em Am They packed them tight inside those coffin ships E Am Bm C D G And they took them to the brand new world of auction blocks and whips
[Chorus 2]
G D C G I'm cutting up her pure white dress G D That I dyed red C G That I dyed red G D C G I'm putting scraps in cheap tin lockets G D C G What time erases and memory mocks G Bm C G I'll send them over the ocean foam E Am Bm C D G Right into those gentle European homes
[Verse 2]
G Am White is the sheet on your fine linen bed D G B The blood stained red on each cotton thread Em Am The merchants gather at St. George's Hall E Am Bm C D G To unveil the kneeling slave who is carved upon the wall G Am So picture the scene on the old Salt House docks D G B Where they loaded the iron shackles and locks Em Am Between a sandstone crocodile, a barrel and a bale E Am Bm C D G You will see the nameless faces they were offering for sale
[Chorus 3]
G D C G So, I sing the praises of God's glory G D C G As a blue cetacean floats in the basement G Bm C G An elephant on the second story E Am Bm C And they queue all day to see him D G In my American Museum G D C G But the Lord will judge us, with fire and thunder G D C G As man continues with all his blunders G Bm It's only money C G It's only numbers E Am Bm C D G Maybe it is time to put aside these fictitious wonders G D And man is feeble C G Man is puny G D C G And if it should divide the Union G Bm C G There is no man who should own another E Am Bm C D G When he can't even recognize his sister and his brother