Song: The Carny
Artist: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Album: Your Funeral... My Trial
Year: 1986
Tabber: beranger80@hotmail.com


Chords
Cdim x3424x
Fm/C x33111


The timing seems hard but there are clues to be on time:
– Play "Cm" when the verse comes quitely
– Play "Fm/C" when the organ enters
– Play "Cdim" when the tack piano strums 


Intro

Cdim (fade in, then at 0:27 play it 14 times)
Fm/C (14 times)


Verse 1 (1:08)
Cm 
And no–one saw the Carny go, the weeks flew by
Until they moved on the show, leaving his caravan behind
Fm/C 
It was parked out on the south east ridge
And as the company crossed the bridge
                                      Cm
With the first rain filling the bone–dry river bed
It shone, just so, upon the edge, away, away, we're sad to say


Verse 2
Fm/C
Dog–boy, Atlas, Mandrake, the geeks, the hired hands
Cm
There was not one among them that did not cast an eye behind
In the hope that the Carny would return to his own kind


Bridge (2:02)
Cdim  (14 times) 
Fm/C (12 times)


Verse 3
Cm
The Carny left behind a horse so skin and bone that he named Sorrow
                           Fm/C
And it was in a shallow, unmarked grave
That that old nag was laid in the then parched meadow


Verse 4
Cm
And it was the dwarves that were given the task of digging the ditch
And laying the nag's carcass in the ground
While boss Bellini, waved his smoking pistol around saying:
"The nag was dead meat"
Fm/C
"We can't afford to carry dead weight"
While the whole company standing about, not making a sound
And turning to the dwarves perched on the enclosure gate
Cm
The boss says: "Bury this lump of crow bait"


Bridge (3:30)
Cdim (14 times)
Fm/C (12 times)


Verse 5
Cm
And the rain came hammering down
Everybody running for their wagons
Tying all the canvas flaps down
Fm/C
The mangy cats growling in their cages
The bird–girl flapping and squawking around


Verse 6
Cm
The whole valley reeking of wet beast
Wet beast and rotten, sodden hay
Freak and brute creation all
Packed up and on their way
Fm/C
The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hind
Moses says to Noah: "Shoulda dugga deepa one"
Their grizzled faces like dying moons
Still dirty from the digging done


Break (4:58)
Fm/C (Strummed 8 times)


Verse 7
Fm/C (Stummed 8 more times)
And Charlie the Atlas to the three said:
"I guess the Carny ain't gonna show"
And they were silent for a spell
wishing they'd done a better job of burying Sorrow


Bridge (5:23)
Cdim (12 times)


Verse 8
Cm
And the company passed from the valley into a higher ground
And the rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow and on the mound
Fm/C
Until nothing was left, nothing left at all
Except the body of Sorrow, that rose in time
To float upon the surface of the eaten soil


Bridge (6:06)
Cdim (12 times)


Verse 9
Cm
And a murder of crows did circle around
First one, then the others flapping blackly down


Bridge (6:33)
Cdim (8 times)


Verse 10
Cm
And the Carny's van still sat upon the edge
Tilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge


Bridge (6:56)
Cdim (8 times)


Outro
Cm
And the rain it hammered down
And the rain it hammered down
And the rain it hammered down
And the rain it hammered down


Bridge (7:18)
Cdim (8 times)


End
Fm/C
And no–one saw the Carny go
No–one saw the Carny go
No–one saw the Carny go
                            Cdim (play it 8 times and and on Cm)
I say, it's funny how things go...