Joanna Newsom – No Provenance (Ukulele)

Am   E  G  F 
Allelu, allelu:

            Am
I have died happy,

E     G      F
and lived to tell the tale to you.

                 Am
I have slept for forty years,

E     G             F
and woke to find me gone.

        Am       G          F
I woke safe and warm in your arms.

        C    (C7)
In your arms

F      Dm
Your arms

    G    C   B/C
In your arms

Am    E       G     F
Not informed of the natural law,

                   Am           E
squatting, lordly, on a stool, in a stall,

G           F
we spun gold clear out of straw.

               Am         E
And, when our bales of bullion

     G
were stored,

   F
you burned me like a barn.

          Am       G       F
I burned safe and warm in your arms.

         C    (C7)
In your arms

F      
Your arms

Dm                         A    
I'm afraid of the Big Return.

D        C#/D          Bm       G
There's a certain conversation lost,

         F#         B
and that loss incurred

     D
with nobody remaining,

    E       Am      Bb          A
to register who had passed this way,

       D
in the night,

D      C#/D          Bm
in the middle of the night

   G            F#               B7
(negating their grace and their sight),

     D                   E
till only I remember, or mark,

       Am      E
how we had our talk:

   G   F
We took our ride,

                  Am
so that there was no-one home,

E                G
and the lights of Rome

F
flickered and died.

   Am                E
I believe that you knew it, too;

G          F               
I think you saw their flares,

            Am   G    F
and kept me safely unawares,

   C    (C7)
in your arms.

   F     Dm
In your arms

   G    C   B/C
In your arms.

   Am       E        G             F
The grass was tall, and strung with burrs,

                     Am
I essayed that high sashay which,

E                  G
in my mind, was my way;

F
you hung behind, in yours.

                   Am         E
Anyhow, she did not neigh.    

G            F
what drew our eyes to hers;

      Am          G        F
that little black mare did not stir,

     C            F
till I lay down in your arms.

Dm                     A       D 
Poor old dirty little dog-size horse!—

C#/D    Bm   G
swaying and wheezing,

    F#         B
as a matter of course;

D            E
swaying and wheezing,

     Am        Bb
as a matter of pride.

    A        D        C#/D        Bm
That poor old nag, not four palms wide,

   G        F#     B7
had waited a long time,

D         E
coated in salt,

         Am      Bb      A               D
buckled like a ship run foul of the fence.

D     C#/D           Bm
In the middle of the night,

              G
she'd sprung up,

   F#        B
no provenance,

D           E             Am
bearing the whites of her eyes.

    Bb        
And you, with your

   A                 D
'arrangement' with Fate,

       C#/D           Bm
nodded sadly at her lame assault

 G   F#            B
on that steady old gate,

D                E            Am    E
her faultlessly etiolated fishbelly-face;

G       F
the muzzle of a ghost.

                    Am
And, pretty Johnny Appleseed,

E
via satellite feed,

G            
tell us, who was it

     F
that you then loved the most?

              Am
Pretty Johnny Appleseed,

E                   G
leave a trail that leads

F
straight back down to the farm.

Am      G             F
safe and warm in your arms. 

      Am     G    A
In your arms.