The President's Dead is a song that Okkervil River has performed live in concert, but
yet to record. It is pretty simple and the lyrics are amazing.
D A Em
The President’s dead, the radio said
G A
Dear friends is it not so horrible?
Em G
A shock to my heart like a knife right through bread,
A D
The newspaper said, the President’s dead.
D A Em
The sea doesn’t dry and the sky doesn’t split,
G A
But friends it just seems so wrong, don’t it?
Em G
A shout from the crowd and a shot to the head,
A D
The President’s lying on the tarmac dead.
D A Em
He’s lying face down with those black dress day gents,
G A
Guns drawn running around in the early o-bits,
Em G
Say he was a good man, you can’t argue with that,
A D
Not today you can’t, not now you can’t.
D A Em
In the media tent, where they spin and they slant,
G A
They just foam at the mouth and they chomp at the bit,
Em G
Those bloodsuckers can wait, ‘till those vultures cool it,
A D
The radio said, the President’s dead,
D A Em
And let’s imagine the day, let’s say 30 years in,
G A
How somebody will say what were you doing when,
Em G
On a beautiful day I was waking up and
A D
I was lying in bed with my girlfriend
D A Em
And the eggs on the plate and the bacon hissing
G A
And the coffee was great, these was spring on the wind,
Em G
If you ever lived through a day where the littlest things,
A D
in the littlest ways, made you feel you were blest.
D A Em
And if you died right then, well you know you’d be missed,
G A
But there’s no better way to cease to exist,
Em G
And you wouldn’t feel sad and you wouldn’t resist,
A D
Because you knew what you had and were thankful for it,
D A Em
In your own little way, well I’m a small quiet man,
G A
I’ve got no wars to win, I don’t have a big plan,
Em G
But I love my new place and I love my old friends,
A D
And I scrimp and I save and one day I’ll have kids,
D A Em
I can truthfully say that my day was like that,
G A
‘till the radio playing on the stand by the bed,
Em G
fired out this report and in three words they said,
A D A Em G
Like three shots to my head, the President’s dead.
D A Em G
The President’s dead.
D A Em G
The President’s dead.
D A Em G
D A Em G
That's it! This is my first tab, so I hope it works.