From A Cutlass Cruiser

 [Intro]

C





[Verse]

F                   C                               Dm             Bb

What a day we had… I figured I’d be feeling bad, but I don’t feel a thing.

              Dm            Bb              C

They read from Mark and then bring us all up Shingle Camp Hill Road.

F                      C                                Dm                Bb

Throwing flowers at the ground felt like hours, with the grown-ups whimpering.

      Dm                 Bb               Eb                  Bb

In the blown-out green of spring I see the whole small town explode.





[Chorus]

C                                                                Bb                Dm      Bb

And then driving to our house at night, the stars shoot out their shine behind the Olds windows.

         Dm               Bb             Dm                 Bb                   C

My father quiet behind the wheel, I fully feel that he knows where he’s trying to go.

C                                                        Bb                    Dm   Bb

And then they carry me inside, this other world behind my eyes, this bright-lit neon glow.

             Dm            Bb               Dm                   Bb    C

And then it’s morning everywhere, and summer air, and there’s the stereo.





[Interlude]

Eb Bb





[Verse]

F                        C                           Dm                  Bb

The Electric Company was playing when my mom left me five minutes on the couch,

          Dm                 Bb              C

and I was blue when she came out, and wasn't breathing.

F                            C                            Dm                 Bb

That Opel flew through town, all down 120, and around the Lebanon green, and out.

             Dm                      Bb                  Eb         Bb

I don't know what they were thinking about. I don't want to imagine it.





[Chorus]

C                                                      Bb     Dm    Bb

In came the doctor, wearing white. Carefully, he cut a circle in my throat

           Dm             Bb                 Dm                   Bb        C

and took a little plastic tube and looped it through my lungs and sealed me closed.

C                                                          Bb                Dm     Bb

My parents were called into the room, with no idea what to do but frightened to say so.

                 Dm              Bb                   Dm            Bb               C

They showed them how to clean it out, and showed them how to set me down, and sent me home.





[Verse]

F          C                         Bb         Dm   Bb

1983 - the apparition came to me and spoke to me all night,

       Dm             Bb                     C

frozen inside my bed, bone-white, my brother fast asleep.

F                     C                                   Bb       Dm    Bb

And, under surgery, a second time it came and showed me a house in outer space,

        Dm             Bb              Dm                  Bb

another boy who had my face, a mom and dad who weren't the same...

                 Eb             Bb

I woke up and my aunt gave me a book.





[Chorus]

C                                                             Bb                Dm           Bb

Show me the neatest place to hide, to crawl inside the silver gym. Don't tell a single other soul.

            Dm             Bb             Dm             Bb         C

Beneath the bleachers is a lighter, and a sneaker, and a frozen sparrow.

C                                                       Bb                   Dm        Bb

I broke into the church at night and pulled out all the stops and heard that organ overload,

    Dm                           Bb               Dm                Bb              C

and  screamed, This giant clashy chord is for Our Lord. Up where he is. Up Where he goes.





[Outro]

C            Dm      Dsus4

Up that music floats,

C                          Dm

leaving family, friends and home down so small below.

              Bb

And it's still there for all I know.