Manuscript
Al Stewart
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Tom : D
D G
[-2--2-2--2--2-2-|---3--3-2-3-2-0----]
[-3--3-3--3--3-3-|---3--3-3-3-3-3--3-]
[-2--2-2--2--2-2-|---0--0-0-0-0-0--0-]
[-0--0-0--0--0-0-|-----------------0-]
[----------------|-------------------]
[----------------|-3-----------------]X2
E|E|E|--------------------------------------------------------|||
VERSE 1
********
D A G
Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights down low
D A G
Silently sifting through papers sealed with a crown
D A G D
Admiral Lord Fisher is writing to Churchill, calling for more Dreadnoughts
A G
The houses in Hackney are all falling down
D A D
And my grandmother sits on the beach in the days before the war
Bb D F G
Young girl writing her diary, while time seems to pause
Bb D F
Watching the waves as they come one by one to die on the shore
Bb A D
Kissing the feeeeeeeeeeet of England.
G D G D
E|E|E|--------------------------------------------------------|||
VERSE 2
********
D A
Oh the lights of Saint Petersburg come on as usual
G D A G
Although the air seems charged with a strangeness of late, yet there's nothing to touch
D A G
And the Tsar in his great Winter Palace has called for the foreign news
D A G
An archduke was shot down in Bosnia, but nothing much
D A D
And my grandmother sits before the mirror in the days before the war
Bb D F G
Smiling a secret smile as she goes to the door
Bb D F
And the young man rides off in his carriage, homeward once more
Bb A D
And the sun sets gentlyyyyyyyyyyyy on England.
G D G D
E|E|E|--------------------------------------------------------|||
VERSE 3
********
D A G
Ah the day we decided to drive down to Worthing, it rained and rained
D A G
Giving us only a minute to stand by the sea
D A G
And crunching my way through the shingles, it seemed there was nothing changed
D A G
Though the jetty was maybe more scarred that I'd known it to be
D A D
And Mandi and I stood and stared at the overcast sky
Bb D G
Where ten years ago we had stood, my Grandfather and I
Bb D
And the waves still rushed in as they had the year that he died
Bb D
And it seemed that my lifetime was shrunken and lost in the tide
Bb A D
As it rose and fell on the sideeeeeeeeeee of England
G D G D A F
Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights
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Progression and practice
Detected progression: D → G → D → A → G → D → A → G
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