Love Chronicles
by Al Stewart
Part I
---------
D C G D
I can remember the first girl that I did love
C G
It was Stephanie
D C G D
In kindergarten arithmetic classes she used to
C G
Sit next to me
D C G
I'd pass her sticky sweets under the table
D C G
Where the teacher couldn't see
D C
Although she wouldn't remember me now
G D C G
Sometimes I wonder where she can be.
D C G D C G D C G
D C G
I can remember the first girl I kissed it was
D C
Christine when I was ten.
D C G
I'd been told we were moving away
D C G
I thought I'd never see her again
D C G
Oh don't forget me
D C G
I'll be back when they let me
D C G
Before you learn how to lie when you're leaving
D C G
Love is so much easier then
D C G D C G
A7 D G D
And at school would you believe three hundred boys
A7 D
And no girls at all
A7 D G
But you're a fool if you should leave
G D A7 D
Just think of the joys of rugby football
G D A G D
And prep in the morning and Brylcream and acne
G D C A
And cross-country running to kill evil thoughts
D G
I'm surprised that I survived
D A7 C G
I ran ten thousand miles with my back to the wall.
D C G D C G
D C G D
I can remember the first girl that I made love to
C G
It was in a park
D C G
In the lower pleasure gardens in Bournemouth
D C G
In summer just after dark
D C G D C G
My mind was reeling. Oh what a feeling.
D C G
I missed the bus and walked twelve miles home
D C G D C G D C
And it really didn't seem far.
G D A G D
And all through my seventeenth summer
D A G A7 D
Running together from crowds and ties
D A G A7 D
Taking our clothes off and feeling each other
D A G A7 D
With fingers and senses and mouths and eyes,
G D G D
Incurring the glances of old disapproval
G D C A7
From elderly local inhabitant's eyes
D A G A D
Oh time time we hardly even knew you
D A7 G A7 D
You didn't touch us with your lies.
C G D C G
D C G
In the halcyon days of my late adolescence
D C G
My goal seemed clearly in sight
D C G
Playing electric guitar with a beat group
D G
We set the ballrooms alight
D C G
Camping it up for the dyed blonde receptionists
D C G
Who told us we were al-ri-yi-yight
D C G
On an ego trip for a teenage superstar
D C G D C G D C G D C G
On thirty shillings a night.
D C G
And so it fell that I came up to London
D C G
To look for fortune and fame
D C G
Starry eyed in my seaside successes
D C G
And much too sure of the game.
D C G
First girl I met there
D C G
I thought I'd get there
D C G
But the first girl was nearly the last girl
D C G
She left my eyes in the drain.
Part II (slower)
---------
A7 D A7 D
She sat on my floor in the dead of the night
G D A7
Rolling a joint and looking round for a light
G D G D
Her clothes were so black and her face was so white
A7
How could I know what was right?
G A7 D
And I sat all huddled upon my bed
G A7
Watching her in my innocence
G A7 D
And it was no sense at all, but too much sense
A G D A7 G D
That took me to the bridge of impotence.
A7 D A7 D
Oh Artaud's anthology lay spread on the floor
G D A7
And the thoughts that she gave me, I'd not met before
G D G D
And stranded half hypnotised, I watched her in awe
A7
Of everything that she stood for.
G A7 G D
And I wanted more than anything to be like her with every sense
G A7 D
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
A G D
That took me to the bridge of impotence.
A7 D A7 D
She came over to me and kissed me in play
G D A7
Taking my hands between her legs as she lay
G D G D
And she looked in my eyes but I turned them away
A7
Finding no words fit to say.
G A7 G
And I hated myself, but could not move
A7
Shattered in my confidence,
G A7 D
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
A G D
That took me to the bridge of impotence.
A7 D A7 D
Now the stare of the lightbulb tore holes in my brain
G D A7
As she got up in silence that hung like a stain
G D G D
And I wanted to speak, or call out her name,
A7
But how could I begin to explain?
G A7 G
And my prosecuting room still holds a strand of her hair
A7
In evidence,
G A7 D
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
A G D
That took me to the bridge of impotence.
A7 D A7 D
Oh I still think about her when the night fills with rain
G D A7
And speaks with its voices uneasy and vain
G D G D
And I think were I maybe to find her again,
A7
Oh I'd probably see her more plain.
G A7 G
And I should have known she was just like me,
A7
It was after all only commonsense,
G A7 D
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
A G D
That took me to the bridge of impotence...
Segue to part 3.
The chords for each verse are the same.
Part III (faster, tempo 1)
----------
D C G (repeat)
D C G
At first I didn't go out much at all
D C G
I just stayed home in my chains.
D C G
Picking over the threads of my confidence
D C G
And searching for the remains.
D C G
And when I couldn't stand any more of it
D C G
Going down to a club.
D C G
Mixing in with the sounds and the crowds
D C G D C G D C G
I let the music cover me up.
D C G
And so it came that I stood disillusioned
G C G
By everything I'd been told.
D C G
I just didn't believe love existed
D C G
They were all just digging for gold.
D C G
Widows and bankers and typists and bus'nessmen
D C G
Loved each other they said.
D C G
But all it was though was just a manoeuvre
D C G D C G D C G
The quickest way into bed.
F#7 D A7 D A Bm A
And only, lonely, the harlequins and painted phonies
Bm F#7 Bm F#7
Pick their ways, through the haze
D A7 D
Of highs and lows and blues
G F# G F#
And all that I could do was to pick my way to you
G F#
Though I didn't tell you
G F#
You were just a thing to prove
Bm Bb+ Bm7 Bm6 Em G Bm
But I was hungry when found you, but I'm al-right now.
F#7 D A7 D A Bm A
They sigh, they lie, the refugees and superhe-roes
Bm F#7 Bm F#7 D A7 D
On ice, so nice to see you, what's your name?
G F# G F#
And all that I could do was to say the same to you
G F# G F#
Take you for the moment, though the moment wasn't true
Bm Bb+ Bm Bm6 Em G Bm
But I was hungry when I found you and I'm al-right now.
Em A7 D
Though the street lamp cut through the curfew
Em A7 D
It shed no light on our mind
Em A7 D
It would have been so easy to love you
G7 F#7
At any other time.
F#7 D A7 D A Bm A
Only lonely, you came to me the night hung coldly
Bm F#7 Bm F#7 D A7 D
In your eyes, some other time I might have stayed with you
G F# G F#
But all that I could do was to turn around to you
G F# G F#
Thanks for what you gave me now it's time to say "Adieu"
Bm Bb+ Bm7 Bm6 Em G Bm
Oh I was hungry when I found you but I'm al-right now.
Em G Bm Bb+
Ba ba ba alright now
D C G (repeat)
D C G
And so I followed the other's example
D C G
And jumped into the melee
D C G
In hunting grounds of Earls Court and Swiss Cottage
D C G
I did my best to get laid
D C G D C G
Beer cans and parties, deb girls and arties
D C G
Bouncing around in the social confusion
D C G
Missing and making the grade.
D C G D C G D G D D
(Instrumental Solo - ad lib)
Part IV (Slower)
---------
N.C C D
The very first time I must confess
C D
I thought you'd be like all of the rest
C G
And we'd be strangers once again
F A7
By the time we were dressed.
C D
But when you'd smoked your cigarette
C D
And talked of some people that we'd met
C G F A7
I found myself asking was it set, did you have to go yet.
F C7
And so you laughed and then kissed me
Bb C G
And stayed for the whole weekend
F C
Although the bed was so narrow
Bb C7 G D C D
We had to sleep end to end.
C D
And so the weeks passed through my brain
C D
In their dadaistic chain
C G F A7
I found myself seeing you again, and again and again
C D
And all you gave you gave it free
C D
Asking for nothing back from me
C G F A7
You gave yourself unselfishly as a part of me.
F C7
And where I thought that just plucking
Bb C G
The fruits of the bed was enough
F C
It grew to be less like fucking
Bb C7 G D G D7
And more like making love.
G D C G Dsus4 D
Of all the girls I ever knew some loved and some denied me
G D C G Dsus4 D
And all the words I ever said have been no use to hide me
G D C G Dsus4 D
And all the songs I ever sung each one of them untied me
G D C G Dsus4
And all the girls I ever loved have left themselves inside me.
F E Eb D