Leonard Cohen – The Captain (Guitar)

        A                 E
Now the Captain called me to his bed

    D              A
He fumbled for my hand

 D                 A
Take these silver bars, he said

      E           A
I'm giving you command.

   A                     A7
Command of what, there's no one here

         D           A
There's only you and me

         E
All the rest are dead or in retreat

    D        A
Or with the enemy.

          A                   E
Complain, complain, that's all you've done

  D            A
Ever since we lost

    D                  A 
If it's not the Crucifixion

      E             A
Then it's the Holocaust.

     A                     A7
May Christ have mercy on your soul

       D           A
For making such a joke

      E
Amid these hearts that burn like coal

           D                  A
And the flesh that rose like smoke.

   A                   E
I know that you have suffered, lad

     D             A
But suffer this awhile

      D                   A
Whatever makes a soldier sad

      E              A
Will make a killer smile.

     A                            A7
I'm leaving, Captain, I've got to go

         D               A
There's blood upon your hand

     E        
But tell me, Captain, if you know

      D                A
Of a decent place to stand.

      A                       E
There is no decent place to stand

D         A 
In a massacre

    D                     A
But if a woman take your hand

     E                  A
Then go and stand with her.

    A                   A7
I left a wife in Tennessee

      D           A
And a baby in Saigon

     E           
I risked my life but not to hear

      D                A
Some country-western song.

        A                          E
Ah, but if you cannot raise your love

     D             A
To a very high degree

             D                              A           
Then you're just the man I've been thinking of

    E                  A
So come and stand with me.

       A                         A7
Your standing days are done, I cried,

       D             A
You'll rally me no more

   E
I don't even know what side

    D                  A
We fought on, or what for.

     A                         E
I'm on the side that's always lost

    D                   A
Against the side of Heaven

    D                            A
I'm on the side of Snake-eyes tossed

    E                  A
Against the side of Seven

         A                         A7
And I've read the Bill of Human Rights

      D              A
And some of it was true

     E 
But there wasn't any burden left

        D            A
So I'm laying it on you.

         A              E
Now the Captain he was dying

         D              A
But the Captain wasn't hurt

     D               A
The silver bars were in my hand

    E                 A
I pinned them to my shirt