The Mountain Goats – Source Decay (Guitar)

       E
Once a week I make the drive

F#5                         A                   E
 two hours east to check the Austin post office box.

           E              F#5
I take the detour through our old neighborhood,

           A                       B
see all the Chevy Impalas in their front yards up on blocks,

      A                      B
and I park in an alley and I read through the postcards

            E        A
that you continue to send:

         F#5                       A
where as indirectly as you can you ask what I remember.

            E                        B
I like these torture devices from my old best friend.

          C#m
Well I'll tell you what I know

       F#
like I swore I always would -

A                          B
  I don't think it's gonna do you any good:

    E          A            E            A       B      A        E
I remember the train headed south out of Bangkok down toward the water.

  E
I always get a late start,

         F#5
when the sun's going down

        A
and the traffic's thinning out

        E
and the glare is hard to take. I wish the

E                         F#5
 West Texas highway was a Möbius strip -

        A                           B
I could ride it out forever. When I feel my heart break,

         A                                 B
I almost swear I hear it happen, it's that clear and that hard.

  E                             A
I come in off the highway and I park in my front yard.

  C#m
I fall out of the car

       F#
like a hostage from a plane,

A
think of you a while and

      B
start wishing it would rain.

    E          A            E            A       B      A        E
I remember the train headed south out of Bangkok down toward the water.

  E
I come into the house,

    F#5
put on a pot of coffee,

A                            E
  walk the floors a little while.

  E                                F#5
I set the postcard on a table with all the others like it,

A                           B
  start sorting through the pile.

             A
I check the pictures and the postmarks

        B
and the captions and the stamps

    E                       A
for signs of any pattern at all.

       F#5                               A
When I come up empty-handed, the feeling almost overwhelms me.

E                   B
  I let a few of my defenses fall

      C#m                               F#
and I smile a bitter smile - it's not a pretty thing to see -

        A                                 B
I think about a railroad platform back in 1983

    E          A            E            A       B      A        E
I remember the train headed south out of Bangkok down toward the water.