Chord/Tab song: We Call Upon the Author

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.


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"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
So we call upon the a[C]uthor to e[A]xplain

[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
And then we call upon the a[C]uthor to e[A]xplain

[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
And we call upon the aut[C]hor to exp[A]lain

[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
And we call upon the au[C]thor to expl[A]ain

[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
I call upon the a[C]uthor to e[A]xplain

[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 fked up and he is a fker
But what an enormous and encyclopaedic brain
I call upon the a[C]uthor to exp[A]lain

[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
And we call upon the [C]author to e[A]xplain

[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
And we call upon the au[C]thor to e[A]xplain

(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

We call upon the [C]author to [A]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

I call upon the [C]author to[A] explain
Yeah, we call upon the author to explain

Prolix! Prolix! There's nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!


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Tab by Euchrid Eucrow