------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What We Have Known - Joanna Newsom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabbed by: C Demmings Email: cdemmings@hotmail.com Tuning: Standard These lyrics are for the version found on the Sprout and the Bean Single, the better version, compared to the earlier version on Yarn and Glue. C# Abm F# Cm Ab Bbm B e|-4---4--2---4-4--6---7-| B|-6---4--2---5-4--6---7-| G|-6---4--3---6-5--6---8-| D|-6---6--4---6-6--8---9-| A|-4---6--4---4-6--8---9-| E|-4---4--2---4-4--6---7-| C# Abm The tadpole buoyant as basalt The seashorse horsing in the salt The owlet in his greenery The narwhal in his cup of sea C# They all believe F# They all believe Cm F# Cm F# But collusion bleeds through back allies From parapets that end in feet When one is weak we discretely meet We throw the bones into the street As they progress We retreat Ab Bbm F# And all the books our fathers wrote Are in the middle of the road Little by little we implode History brittle, brown and broke We can't remember what was spoke So we stare in wonder at the smoke What it begets is born alone We know not now what we have known B Ab F# C# Ladies breathe deep against your whale bones When your children come back made of stone C# Abm And the terror seething seas away Is like the wheezing of the bay In miniature agonies That travel westward on the breeze C# F# And bring us all to our knees Cm F# And the dappled horse the sorrowed mare With eyes that do not see but stare Beneath boots as black as malachite He drives a nag into the night Into the night And all the baby boys we've born With eyes averted from the storm Sent off to die in perfect form We know not now what we have known Satellite photos and rhetoric See how the euphemisms stick And when they come back broke and burned Those who return have not returned Ladies breathe deep against your whale bones When your children come back made of stone