The Only Child – Jackson Browne   (Album: The Pretender)


F
Boy of mine
        F/A              Bb        A/C#
As your fortune comes to carry you down the line
        Dm           Am/C      Bb
And you watch as the changes unfold
        Dm             Am/C                Bb
And you sort among the stories you've been told
        F             A/C#                Dm
If some pieces of the picture are hard to find
        Bb                                    Bb/C
And the answers to your questions are hard to hold


          Bb
Take good care of your mother
            F
When you're making up your mind
           Dm               Am              C
Should one thing or another take you from behind
           Dm                 F         
Though the world may make you hard and wild
       Bb               F
And determine how your life is styled
            Dm                C               G7/B    Bb
When you've come to feel that you're the only child
          Bb                    F
Take good care of your brother


Bb
Let the disappointments pass
F
Let the laughter fill your glass
         Dm             C          Bb
Let your illusions last until they shatter
Bb
Whatever you might hope to find
 F                      Dm
Among the thoughts that crowd your mind
 F                                   C
There won't be many that ever really matter


              Bb
But take good care of your mother
      F  
And remember to be kind
         Dm              Am                  C
When the pain of another will serve you to remind
               Dm                  F
That there are those who feel themselves exiled
   Bb               F
On whom the fortune never smiled
      Dm                C                  G7/B    Bb
And upon whose life the heartache has been piled


             Bb
They're just looking for another
       F
Lonely child

|Bb9        |Bb9        |F           |F           |
|Bb9        |Bb9        |F           |F           |


    Bb                 Bdim
And when you've found another soul
    F    A/C#       Dm
Who sees into your own
          Bb                  F 
Take good care of each other


|Bb        |Bb        |F            |F           |  repeat & fade



Transcribed by Gerard Koot (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) – july 2007
Email: gerardkoot@hotmail.com