The Mountain Goats – Source Decay (Ukulele)

E
Once a week I make the drive

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

E                      F#
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#                        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#
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#
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#
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#
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#
put on a pot of coffee,

A                       E
walk the floors a little while.

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

E                 B
I let a few of my defenses fall

        C#                              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

A                 E
and I remember the train headed south out of Bangkok down toward toward