Billy Bragg & Wilco
Remember The Mountain Bed
Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2 (2000)
Thanks to others for posting the correct chords (as above the tab below).
The following is aimed at helping people try to play those chords while
also getting in the fills which really make the song. It's not meant to be
absolutely perfect, but it's pretty damn close to how Jeff Tweedy strums
it. Hope it helps you figure it out.
Capo 3
(Intro same as verse)
Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves?
D (xx0232@1) A (x02220@1) Ge:--3----3---3---------0---0---2---------3------3----3---3-----3---3-------| (320003@1)B:--2----2---2---------2---2---2---------3------3----3---3-----3---3-------|
G:--3----3---3---(0)---2---0---2---(0)---0------0----0---0-----0---0-------|
D:--2h4--4---4---(0)---2---2---4---(0)---0------0----0---0-----0---0-------|
A:--x----x---x---------0---0---0---(0)---0h2----2----2---2-----0---0h2-----|
E:--x----x---x---------x---x---x---------3------3----3---3-----3---3-------|
Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds?
G (320003@1) D (xx0232@1) Ae:-(3)------------------------------------------3-----------0--------------| (x02220@1)B:--0----0----0---------------------------------2-----------2--------------|
G:-(0)------------2----0----0h2---0-------------3-----------2--------------|
D:-(0)---------------------------------0---2----0-----------2--------------|
A:-(2)------------------------------------------x-----------0--------------|
E:-(3)------------------------------------------x-----------x--------------|
You laughed as I covered you over with leaves, Face, breast, hips and thighs
Bm (x24432@1) G (320003@1) Em (022000@1) Ge:---2----2---2----------3--------------------0-----------------------3----| (320003@1)B:---3----3---3----------3--------------------0-----------------------3----|
G:---2h4--4---4----------0--------------------0---0-------------------0----|
D:---2h4--4---4----------0--------------------2--------4----2----0----0----|
A:---2----2---2----------0h2------------------2-----------------------h2---|
E:---x----x---x----------3--------------------0-----------------------3----|
You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes
D (xx0232@1) C (x32010@1) Em (022000@1) G (320003@1) De:--3------------------0--0---0--------0----x----3------------------3-----| (xx0232@1)B:--2------------------1--1---1--------0----x----3------------------2-----|
G:--3------------------0--0---0--------0---(0)---0------------------3-----|
D:--2h4----------------0--0h2-0--------2---(0)---0----0--0h2--0-----0-----|
A:--x------------------3---3--3--------2---(0)---0h2-------------2--x-----|
E:--x------------------x---x--x--------0----x----3------------------x-----|
Fill between verses (as above):
D (xx0232@1) C (x32010@1) Em (022000@1) G (320003@1) De:--3------------------0--0---0--------0----x----3------------------3-----| (xx0232@1)B:--2------------------1--1---1--------0----x----3------------------2-----|
G:--3------------------0--0---0--------0---(0)---0------------------3-----|
D:--2h4----------------0--0h2-0--------2---(0)---0----0--0h2--0-----0-----|
A:--x------------------3---3--3--------2---(0)---0h2-------------2--x-----|
E:--x------------------x---x--x--------0----x----3------------------x-----|
Rosin smells and turpentine smells from eucalyptus and pine
Bitter tastes of twigs we chewed where tangled woodbines twine
Trees held us in on all four sides
so thick we could not see
I could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me
Your arm was brown against the ground, your cheeks part of the sky
Your fingers played with grassy moss, as limber you did lie
Your stomach moved beneath your shirt
and your knees were in the air
Your feet played games with mountain roots as you lay thinking there
Below us the trees grew clumps of trees raised families of trees, and they
As proud as we tossed their heads in the wind and flung good seeds away
The sun was hot and the sun was bright
down in the valley below
Where people starved and hungry for life so empty come and go
There in the shade and hid from the sun we free'd our minds and learned
Our greatest reason for being here, our bodies moved and burned
There on our mountain bed of leaves
we learned life's reason why
People laugh and love and dream, they fight and they hate to die
The smell of your hair I know is still there, if most of our leaves are blown
Our words still ring in the brush and the trees where singing seeds are sown
Your shape and form is dim, but plain
there on our mountain bed
I see my life was brightest where you laughed and laid your head
I learned the reason why man must work and how to dream big dreams
To conquer time and space and fight the rivers and the seas
I stand here filled with my emptiness now
and look at city and land
I know why farms and cities are built by hot warm nervous hands
I've crossed many states just to stand here now, my face all hot with tears
I've crossed city and valley, desert and stream to bring my body here
My history and future blaze bright in me
and all my joy and pain
Go through my head on our mountain bed where I smell your hair again
All this day long I linger here and on in through the night
My greeds, my joys, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight
My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled
I walk above all pain
Back to the breast of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again...
