As with most Bad Seeds arrangements, this can be made as simple or as complex as you wish. You can play the main verse riff as an Am chord all the way through, or you can toss in occassional C or G chord (or as I prefer an Am with C or G on the bass). You'll see the suggestions in brackets like this '[ ]' If you wish to imitate the organ, your best bet is to simply arpeggiate the Am chords then slash the chorus chords. One caveat, I offer no gurantee of completeness or accuracy. If you think something better, please feel free to add corrections. This is merely the way I've chosen to interpret the song. ------------------------------------------------------------------- "We Call Upon the Author to Explain," from DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!! (2008) Opening (without lyrics) can be played like this. It makes more sense if you listen to song: Am, Am, Am, C [Am/C] or G [Am/G] Am What we once thought we had we didn't, and what we have now will never be that way again C A So we call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop) Our myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets, we've shunned them from the greasy-grind The poor little things, they look so sad and old as they mount us from behind I ask them to desist and to refrain C A And then we call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop) Rosary clutched in his hand, he died with tubes up his nose And a cabal of angels with finger cymbals chanted his name in code We shook our fists at the punishing rain C A And we call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop) He said everything is messed up around here, everything is banal and jejune There is a planetary conspiracy against the likes of you and me in this idiot of the moon Well, he knew exactly who to blame C A And we call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop) Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix! Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix! N.C.................... Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop) Well, I go guruing down the street, young people gather round my feet Ask me things, but I don'r know where to start They ignite the power-trail ssstraight to my father's heart And once again C A I call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) Who is this great burdensome slavering dog-thing that mediocres my every thought? I feel like a vacuum cleaner, a complete sucker, it's f**ked up and he is a f**ker But what an enormous and encyclopaedic brain C A I call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) Oh rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious diseease Global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions Well, it does in your brain C A And we call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) Now hang on, my friend Doug is tapping on the window (Hey Doug, how you been?) Brings me back a book on holocaust poetry complete with pictures Then tells me to get ready for the rain C A And we call upon the author to explain (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) I say prolix! Prolix! Something a pair of scissors can fix N.C.................. Am Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best! He wrote like wet papier mache, went the Heming-way weirdly on wings and with maximum pain C A We call upon the author to explain Am (Doop doop doop doop dooop ...) Down in my bolthole I see they've published another volume of unreconstructed rubbish "The waves, the waves were soldiers moving". Well, thank you, thank you, thank you And again C A I call upon the author to explain Yeah, we call upon the author to explain Prolix! Prolix! There's nothing a pair of scissors can't fix! -------------------------------------------------------------- Tab by Euchrid Eucrow