The Decemberists – My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist (Ukulele)

Am       Am/E      C      D          G
[tab]   Em       D
In pre-war Paris

Am        D             B      Em   Emadd9 Em
Smuggling bombs for the underground.

Am              D
And she met my father

      B                C
At a fete in Aix-en-Provence.

        Cadd9                  D
He was disguised as a Russian cadet

                     Em   Emadd9 Em
in the employ of the Axis.

     C
And there in the half-light

      C
Of the provincial midnight

      G
To a lone concertina

      G
They drank in cantinas

      C                D
And toasted to Edith Piaf

                     Em   Emadd9 Em
And the fall of the Reich.

Am             Am/E      C       D       G
My sister was born in a hovel in Burgundy

      Em          D
And left for the cattle

Am             D          B     Em   Emadd9 Em
But later was found by a communist

Am                 D
Who'd deserted his ranks

      B         C
To follow his dream

        Cadd9             D                Em   Emadd9 Em
To start up a punk rock band in South Carolina.

  C
I get letters sometimes.

  C
They bought a plantation

    G
She weeds the tobacco

    G
He offends the nation

                 C                     D
And they write, "Don't be a stranger, y'hear."

                   Em   Emadd9 Em
"Sincerely, your sister."

Am       Am/E
So my parents had me

               C      D          G
To the disgust of the prostitutes

       Em       D
On a bed in a brothel.

Am             D         B        Em   Emadd9 Em
Surprisingly raised with tender care

Am                  D
'Til the money got tight

         B         C
And they bet me away

          Cadd9             D
To a blind brigadier in a game

                 Em   Emadd9 Em
Of high stakes canasta.

       C
But he made me a sailor

       C
On his brigadier ship fleet.

   G
I know every yardarm

       G
From main mast to jib sheet.

    C                      D
But sometimes I long to be landlocked

                   C
And to work in a bakery.

    Em        C         Em
Ahhhhh    Ahhhhh    Ahhhhh