Julian the Onion
Ten Stories (b-side)
mewithoutYou
Tabbed by Matt Giesmann
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Notes:
The entire song repeats Am Dm / Am Em Am
I've skipped the interlude with the solo.
For playing acoustically, I just linger on Am between sections
[]'s indicate speaker and are not sung
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Am Dm
Logger Days, savannah, the menagerie packed its trains
Am Em Am
Left Bitter Root, Montana for those old Nebraska plains
Am Dm
Ticket sales were suffering now, with half the animals gone
Am Em Am
But the circus kept its course somehow and the show continued on
Am Dm
Pitched their tents in Battle Creek on a makeshift flatbed stage
Am Em Am
With a draytop shotgun rhino's peak and a black wrought iron cage
Am Dm
The barker sprung to action as the band began to play
Am Em Am
To introduce the new attraction who they'd picked up on the way
Am Dm
Julian, Julian
Am Em Am
Julian the Onion who they'd picked up on the way
Am Dm
[BARKER:] "Cleanse your minds and palates, as I seldom mince my words
Am Em Am
This poor boy's a walking shallot; yes, it's shocking as you've heard!
Am Dm
From his lonesome, yellow childhood, so fantastically deformed
Am Em Am
He was battered by his classmates and sauteed like bantam corn
Am Dm
'Red Vidalias!' 'Valley Sweets!' for twelve long, rotten years
Am Em Am
If he so much as skinned his knee, the entire schoolhouse moved to tears
Am Dm
We found him where he'd sprouted, plotting a garden coup d'etat
Am Em Am
In a carrot stick and celery stalk manage-a-mirepoix
Am Dm
Now, feast your caramel eyes on the most savory sight in town!"
Am Em Am
All his joking well-evoking peals of laughter from the crowd
Am Dm
But Julian, Julian
Am Em Am
Julian the Onion was not laughing with the crowd
Am Dm
His jaundiced face was trembling, beads of sweat began to fall
Am Em Am
Down his oblong gooseback forehead to his snuffed-out lantern jaw
Am Dm
His cut-shoot sprig of hair disheveled, tiny fists impearled
Am Em Am
[JULIAN:] "No I am not this misshaped body, and I'm not long for this world
Am Dm
Wooden dimes and quiet fears, come curl your lips at me
Am Em Am
But all perceptions are as mirrors, it's your own reflections that you see
Am Dm
So hide behind your laughs a while, look handsome though you may
Am Em Am
Oh, do enjoy that saccharine smile, as there comes for you a day"