Chords for (Pt 1) Laura Marling - 'Rambling Man' - The Music Show (ABC Radio National)

_ _ [C] Oh, [F] _ _ [Bb] _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ naive [F] little me, _ _ _ asking what things you have seen
And you're [Bb] vulnerable [F] in your head, _ you're [Fm] screaming your [F] way out to your dead
_ _ _ _ Creatures built by night, _ _ _ following [C]
things that [F] aren't right
And they're tired and [Bb] they need [F] to be led, you're screaming your way out to your dead
_ _ Forgive me [C] to a rambling [F] man, let it always [C] be known that I was [F] who I am _ _
_ _ _ And well beaten, battered and cold, _ _ my children will live just to go old
But if I sit here and wait, _ I'll be blown [Bb] over by the [F] slightest abrase
_ And the weak [C] need to [F] be led, _ and the tender are carried [C] to their [F] bed
And it's a pale and cold affair, _ and I'll be [Fm] damned if I'll be [F] found there
_ Oh, give [C] me to a rambling [F] man, let it always be known that I was who I am _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] It's funny how the first chords [F] that you come to _ [Am] are the minor notes that come [F] to serenade you
_ [Am] And it's hard to accept yourself [F] for someone you _ _ _ don't desire, _ [Dm] as someone you don't want [F] to be
_ _ _ Oh, give me [C] to a [F] rambling man, let it always be known that I was who I am _ _ _ _ _
_ Oh, give me to a rambling man, let it always be known [G] that I was who I am _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ That was Rambling Man, written and performed by Laura Marling, who is a [Eb] guest today on the music show for ABC Radio National.
Laura, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Tell me, what's that song about?
_ Um, I don't know, it's up to the listener really I guess.
_ _ _ I think there's a clue in the title.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Is the rambling man his state of mind, or how the person singing sees him, do you think?
Yeah, I think it's more from a view, but it's kind of like the character in the song is like a, you know, I really liked that character, so it kind of crops up in the rest of the album.
Hmm, beautiful.
When you listen to this whole new album, which is I Speak Because I Can, there seem to be a lot of songs that touch on womanhood, on things about being a woman.
What have you been thinking about that inspired that?
I don't know.
I guess it's just sort of come of age really, where you do, I assume that [Dbm] most people, whether you're male or female, come to a point where you feel the weight of responsibility of being a sort of, well, you know, being thrown into adulthood, whether you like it or not.
Hmm.
And I think, you _ know, I find a lot of strength in womanhood, and you know, heroines and that kind of thing.
There's a very interesting line in Rambling Man that we just heard, where the person speaking sings, it's hard to accept yourself as someone you don't desire.
And I wondered about that kind of contradiction in the song, not contradiction, but that thought about still wanting to be a woman, but not knowing who you are yet.
Is that something you've been sort of playing around with in your songs?
Yeah, I guess so.
I guess they are, as much as you try not to be really self-indulgent with how you write, you always end up writing about yourself.
_ But I think particularly with that line, there is always, I think, you know, I have a belief that everybody has the capability to be good.
And I think, I think I personally struggle with that, I'm sure everyone does.
You know, everyone's got the capabilities to make the right choice, but it's pretty rare that we do.
Hmm.
Another theme that I picked up in the album is about being English.
I wondered about how that influences the way you write and what you write about.
Yeah, I guess, I guess, well, I think landscape, you know, really affects your character.
_ _ And, you know, your culture. _
And I love, I love difference.
And I love, I love the fact that I can feel very English and still love coming to Australia and love Australia for its culture.
And so I guess that having that, having that grounding in England, makes everything, makes me put everything in perspective in a way when I travel a lot.
So I say, I guess I, you know, consider England my, my family and my home and everything else.
So, yeah.
Did you listen to a lot of music as you were growing up, that also had, you know, that, that Englishness, that sensibility or people who sang about the land the way you do?
Do you remember?
Well, I guess I did, but I don't think I quite related to it that way.
I, I think my, my, my England is my personal England.
And I think that's, you know, that's more what I, you know, I do.
Yeah.
Where's your personal England?
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Hampshire, which is the south of England, in a little village.
And I, of course, hated it at the time because it was boring.
And now I couldn't want anything more than to go back there.
But, yeah.
And there's an album, a song on the album called Goodbye England, covered in snow, in which you, can you tell that story of a particular place that your father took you? Yeah.
Where you live.
_ _ Yeah, there's a church on top of a hill that looks over the village of Eversleigh.
_ And it couldn't, you know, it couldn't be more English [Ab] and, you know, muddy and all that kind of stuff.
And he used to take me and my sisters there a lot.
And one particular time, when I was quite young, he took me up there and asked if I, if I would bring him back for he, you know, when he was really old, before he popped his clogs.
And, and I just, you know, I remember thinking about that a couple of years ago and thinking, God, that was really weird of him to do that.
And then, you know, actually, it's quite a lovely, lovely thought.
Hmm.
So, [F] yeah. _
[C] _ [F] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ [N] _