The Magnetic Fields – 73 It Could Have Been Paradise (Guitar)

            Am
We lived in Paia

C                                  G
Hippie central, I could hop to the beach

                   Am
Sometimes we would hitchike

C                                         G
Miles to school, school being a figure of speech

               A
Where we sang (kahuli aku, kahuli mai)

              Am
We lived on a zendo

C                                  G
In the forest, silence for days on end

                Am
Caught up on my reading

C                            G
Huckleberry Finn was my only friend

                   Am        F
It could have been paradise

            C             D7
But for the horrible bugs

                       Am          F
I could have gone to a real school

            C             G
But for the murderous thugs

                   Am        F
In the forest of paradise

            C             D7
We gathered magic mushrooms

             Am        F
But mostly I sat around

            C             G
In rooms as quiet as tombs

                       Am
My mother then took up with

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A trumpeter, red beard and pork pie hat

                 Am
Found a lyric of mine

C                                  G
He took it home and set music to that

              Am
To impress my mother

C                                    G
He stole my song. Better back off, mister

                 Am
Fast forward two decades

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Same thing happened but with Shakespeare's sister

                   Am        F
Why should it be paradise?

              C             D7
That's just a place people go

                   Am         F
It was home for a little while

            C             G
But you can give me the snow

                    Am
My friend Shell was named for

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A shell on the beach. She spoke pidgin English

           Am
Everyday I swam out

C                               G
Onto the reef, catching exotic fish

                   Am        F
It could have been paradise

              C            D7
With one good reason to stay

               Am        F
If it had been paradise

                 C             G
Guess we'd still be there today