Most versions of the song have a kind of airy-fairy fade in at the start that make strumming the chord a
nightmare. It's definitely my recommendation to just grab the E with a quiet strum, and open with the vocals.
I'm basing this off the post-Sideshow version, with two final choruses. The Am feels wrong against Paul's
vocal track from the Spiegeltent, but feels more right to my memory of the track from The Sideshow.
If you're listening to the DAAS version, only play one chorus at the end.
[Verse 1]
E A
A stinking sun burned me awake
A
Through the shattered window panes
E
I recall through eyes of claret red
A
He had taken me again
G#m
And the hair of the dog revives me
D
Yet I find it hard to swallow
A
It's a marriage made in Heaven
E
Between me and the bottle
[Verse 2]
E
A thousand words drift through my hands
A
As the room just bends
E
A sodden mattress holds my heart
A
And it cradles my regret
G#m
I'll read it once again
D
Though she knows that I'll not follow
A
It's a marriage of convenience
E
Between me and the bottle
[Verse 3]
E
So King Alcohol's come back
A
With the traffic's mournful cry
E
And he swaggers, drunk and skinful,
A
Through my throat all parched and dry
G#m
And if I should die before I wake
D
I pray the lord my soul to take
A
So maybe I could rest
Am
And never wake again in sorrow
G#m
And if I should die before I wake
D
I pray the lord my soul to take
A
Then maybe I could rest
E
And never wake again in sorrow
[Outtro]
A
It's a marriage on the rocks
E
Between me and the bottle