Out Among The Ruins by Cathal Coughlan
From the Cathal Coughlan’s 2000 Black River Falls album. Written by Cathal Coughlan. No capo.
INTRO
[F#6]
VERSE 1
[F#6] Two streets amid the rolling grassland
[F#6] Sighing trees hide the sanitorium [E6] grounds [A/B] [C#maj7] [F#6]
[F#6] They kneel to pray in amber sunlight
[F#6] Stained by glass, their spotlit shareworn [Bbm] frown [Ebm]
[Bbm] Sullen re [Ebm] lations frown
On the [Bbm] rake’s pri [Ebm] vations
[Bbm] Frown – [Ebm] he [Bbm] drank his [Ebm] savings
[F] Kneeling in silence in the [Gm7] hope they’ll feed me
I [F/A] mention past lives but [Ebmaj7] no one hears me
CHORUS 1
[Abmaj7] Here comes the angel, un [Bb6] shockable, smiling
[Abmaj7] Knowingness, knowingness
[Bbaug] Bidding [C#maj7] you be [Cm] human
[Abmaj7] Spawned from a nation with a [Bb6] heart of ashes
[Abmaj7] Knowingness, knowingness
[Bbaug] Out a [C#maj7] mong the [Cm] ruins
INTERLUDE
VERSE 2
[F#6] Flowers in the windows for the drunken draymen
The [F#6] bad lung gone, they let him back in [E6] town [Bm7] [C#maj7] [F#6]
And [F#6] June came deathly to the tangled laneways
Then he saw her – could they but col [Bbm] lide? [Ebm]
A [Bbm] flash of [Ebm] mournful [Bbm] eyes [Ebm]
You’d [Bbm] better [Ebm] learn to [Bbm] sigh [Ebm]
And [Bbm] relish [Ebm] exile
Their [F] children were mean, only [Gm7] fit for playtime
[F/A] Strangers on the hydro [Ebmaj7] carbon coastline
CHORUS 2
The [Abmaj7] face of your lover, ex [Bb6] pression frozen
[Abmaj7] Knowingness, knowingness
[Bbaug] Breaka [C#maj7] ble and [Cm] wooden
The [Abmaj7] heart will perish what the [Bb6] hand has chosen
[Abmaj7] Knowingness, knowingness
[Bbaug] Out a [C#maj7] mong the [Cm] ruins
BRIDGE
[F] Kneeling in silence in the [Gm7] hope they’ll feed me
[F/A] And for me, there’s [Eb/Bb] no God
They’ll [F] have me committed, to [Gm7] morrow maybe
Be [F/A] queath every penny to [Eb/Bb] Opus Dei
OUTRO/FADE
A [Abmaj7] world of shadows, of forgotten meanings
[Abmaj7] Knowingness, knowingness
And the [Abmaj7] glad companions’ smiles receding
[Abmaj7] Frozen now, long as death
As I [Abmaj7] search for glimmers on the loveless faces
The only ones I see
[Bbaug] Out a [C#maj7] mong the [Cm] ruins
[Bbaug] Out a [C#maj7] mong the [Cm] ruins
[Abmaj7] [F6] [Gm] [Bbm]
[Abmaj7] [F6] [Gm] [Bbm] [Dm7]
[Abmaj7] [F6] [Gm] [Bbm]
[Abmaj7] [F6] [Gm] [Bbm] [Dm7]