Josh Ritter – Thin Blue Flame (Guitar)

C                         F
  I became a thin blue flame

C                         F
  Polished on a mountain range

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  And over hills and fields I flew

C                       Am
  Wrapped up in a royal blue

                   F
I flew over Royal City last night

                                 C
A bullfighter on the horns of a new moon’s light

                          F
Caesar’s ghost I saw the war-time tides

                                C
The prince of Denmark’s father still and quiet

                            F
The whole world was looking to get drowned

                                C
Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds

                                   F
I looked over curtains and it was then that I knew

                            C
That only a full house gonna make it through

C                       F
  I became a thin blue wire

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  That held the world above the fire

C                        F
  And so it was I saw behind

C                           Am
  Heaven’s just a thin blue line

                            F
If God’s up there he’s in a cold dark room

                               C
The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons

                                   F
He bent down and made the world in seven days

                             C
And ever since he’s been a’walkin' away

                          F
Mixing with nitrogen in lonely holes

                           C
Where neither seraphim or raindrops go

                                 F
I see an old man wandering the halls alone

                             C           F
But only a full house gonna make a home

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  But I became a thin blue stream

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  The smoke between asleep and dreams

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  And in that clear blue undertow

C                         Am
  I saw Royal City far below

                        F
Borders soft with refugees

                             C
Streets a’swimming with amputees

                                            F
It’s a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart

                                    C
It’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart

                              F
The days are nights and the nights are long

                             C
Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs

                                            F
And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign

                                           C
Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine

                                  F
Now the dogs are howling at our door

                                       C
Singing bout vengeance like it’s the joy of the Lord

                                        F
Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round

                                       C
They’re guilty when killed and they’re killed where they’re found

                                  F
If what’s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high

                                    C
It’s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die

                                 F
Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please

                             C
The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees

                                F
Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage

                                C
Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage

                              Am
Lead pellets peppering aluminum

                          C
Halcyon, laudanum and Opium

                                  Am
Sings kiss thee hardy this poisoned cup

                          C
His winding sheet is busy winding up

                             Am
In darkness he looks for the lights that have died

                                                   C
But you need faith for the same reasons that it’s so hard to find

                                    Am
And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck

                              G
And like good tragedy that’s what we expect

                             F
At night I make plans for a city laid down

                                C
Like the hips of a girl on the spring covered ground

                              F
Spirals and capitals like the twists of a script

                                    C
Streets named for heroes that could almost exist

                                  F
The fruit trees of Eden and the gardens that seem

                                 C
To float like the smoke from the lithium dream

                             F
Cedar trees growing in the cool of the squares

                                C
The young women walking in the portals of prayer

                                        F
And the future glass buildings and the past an address

                                     C
And the weddings in pollen and the wine bottomless

                                 F
And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right

                           C
The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night

                             Am
The future descending like a bright chandelier

                                      G
And the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer

                      Am
In Royal City I fell into a trance

                                       G
Oh it’s hell to believe there ain’t a hell of a chance

C                              F
  I woke beneath a clear blue sky

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  The sun a shout the breeze a sigh

C                                   F
  My old hometown and the streets I knew

C                              Am
  Were wrapped up in a royal blue

                                 F
I heard my friends laughing out across the fields

                                  C
The girls in the gloaming and the birds on the wheel

                                  F
The raw smell of horses and the warm smell of hay

                             C
Cicadas electric in the heat of the day

                                  F
A run of Three Sisters and the flush of the land

                                   C
And the lake was a diamond in the valley’s hand

                                    F
The straight of the highway and the scattered out hearts

                               C
They were coming together they pulling apart

                               F
And angels everywhere were in my midst

                                C
In the ones that I loved in the ones that I kissed

                                  F
I wondered what it was I’d been looking for up above

                                  C
Heaven is so big there ain’t no need to look up

                                F
So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air

                          C
Only a full house gonna have a prayer