This Building by Cathal Coughlan
From the Cathal Coughlan’s 1996 Grand Necropolitan album. Written by Cathal Coughlan. Capo on 1st fret.
INTRO
[Gmaj7]
VERSE 1
[Gmaj7] The greying tower
[Gmaj7] Lines massive, baggy-eye windows
[Gmaj7] Streets of a slum
[Gmaj7] Point to it, dumbly, like arrows
[Gmaj7] It speaks of [F#m7] fu [D] tures
[Gmaj7] Lived out in fear with death close at hand
[Gmaj7] Overgrowth neutered
[Gmaj7] A warning, blatant, the skyline jammed
CHORUS 1
It’s [F#m] crip [Bm7] pled and [D6] blind [Em]
But it’s [F#m] act [Bm7] is a [D6] mime [Em]
Which means: “[F#m] Look here [D6] first
[Ebm7] This building hates us”
VERSE 2
[Gmaj7] The timid tones
[Gmaj7] Fake chat and ditties, rotating
[Gmaj7] Down windy halls
[Gmaj7] Cracked sheeting screeches as breath goes in
[Gmaj7] Gases of [F#m7] food
[Gmaj7] (Past, present, absent and formerly)
[Gmaj7] Seep, cell to cell
[Gmaj7] Down stairwell, needle-lined, normally
CHORUS 2
The [F#m] tail- [Bm7] lights of [D6] Earth [Em]
Seem [F#m] faint [Bm7] from this [D6] perch [Em]
As we [F#m] live out this [D6] curse
[Ebm7] This building hates us
INTERLUDE
[Gmaj7] [Bbdim]
The crew of a tiny camcorder crowds around one doorway where a resident is pointing at his leg. Buried in here is the nozzle of a pressurised paint gun. He says, “It’s never coming out! I am transformed. I have created a new being out of old.”
[C#m] I’ve been quite a Don Juan
[C#m] Led man and woman on
[C#m] My heyday, downed with a [F#m] belch [C] [B7]
[C#m] I gave my cash to pinstripe thieves
[C#m] And my partners in delinquency
[C#m] All of them as damaged as my [F#m] self [C] [B7]
[Gmaj7] [Bbdim] (x2)
[C#m] Like a shaman sent from hell
I [C#m] led the dance, I chanted spells
And [C#m] down on all disaster did [F#m] rain [C] [B7]
Oh but [C#m] now they beat upon my door
I say [C#m] go where there is no cure
But [C#m] back they come, every single [F#m] day [C] [B7]
VERSE 3
[Gmaj7]
[Gmaj7] No rite will mark
[Gmaj7] Birth, growing, pairing, spawning, death
[Gmaj7] Nor lying down
A [Gmaj7] mid the grime of years will stone suggest
[Gmaj7] Hold tight, hold [F#m7] tight
[Gmaj7] To your digital twist and scrape
[Gmaj7] They got you good
[Gmaj7] So now let’s see you try going straight
OUTRO/FADE
[Gmaj7]
[Gmaj7] Oh no don’t be like that or the [Dmaj7] bossman won’t invite us back [Gmaj7]
[Gmaj7] Oh no don’t be like that or the [Dmaj7] impresario won’t clap [Gmaj7]
[Gmaj7] Watch them dance on gallows trees, [Dmaj7] burn the birdies, burst the bees [Gmaj7]
[Gmaj7] Feed her whisky ’til she’s senile, [Dmaj7] ask if you can buy a missile [Gmaj7]
[Gmaj7] Oh no no don’t be like that or the [Dmaj7] bossman won’t invite us back [Gmaj7]
[Gmaj7] Oh please watch my hat, [Dmaj7] paint my walls and windows black [Gmaj7]