Chords for George Monbiot & Ewan McLennan - Breaking the Spell of Loneliness
Tempo:
105.7 bpm
Chords used:
G
C
D
E
Em
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[G] [E] [G]
[C] [D]
[G] [Em] [G]
[C] [D]
[G] [A] I'm George Monbiot and [N] I've been collaborating with Ewan McLennan on an album called Breaking
the Spell of Loneliness.
It began when I wrote an article about the epidemic of loneliness and
what a weird thing it is.
Here we are with seven billion people on earth, we are the hyper-social
mammal who, you know, can't survive in evolutionary history, we couldn't survive for one night by
ourselves, and yet here we are succumbing to this massive epidemic of social isolation.
How could this be?
Why was this happening?
And to my surprise the article went viral
and I had a couple of publishers got in touch with me saying would you write a book about it?
And I thought yeah I really want to spend three years sitting on my backside writing about
loneliness, I can't think of anything better.
But then I thought I do want to do something with it,
but something that's not writing, because writing is an isolating process, I mean I couldn't think
of anything more depressing.
But then it struck me that well maybe the answer is music, because
music automatically begins to bring people together, it sort of almost answers its own question.
Only one problem, I can't play a note of music and my singing's banned under international law,
so I went to someone who can, a musician I've greatly admired for some time,
though he's still a young man, Ewan McLennan, and I proposed a collaboration.
The way we've gone
about it is that I've come up with a story and then written a brief lyric sketch of how the
lyrics might go, sometimes in blank verse, sometimes in rhyming verse, pretty rough,
and then passed it on to Ewan with the understanding that he can do whatever he'd like with it.
And in some cases it hasn't made the cut, in some cases chunks of it have gone through more or less
intact, and in other cases he's made radical changes to it.
And that sort of understanding
that he can sort of use it as he wishes seems to have worked pretty well.
I'll give you an example
of a lyric sketch that I wrote and then you can hear what Ewan's done with it.
This is called
The Child Inside, I'll read just a bit of it.
The woods are quiet now where once they rang with
shouts.
The songs that echoed through the veil and down the generations gone.
The streams once
splashed and swam are still.
Conkers uncollected on the forest floor, dandelion clocks unblown.
The [G] child inside is a child inside, lost in a humming world [C] where birds don't sing and breezes
[D] never [G] blow.
The child inside is a child inside, shut in a [E] sunless place that knows [G] no spring,
has never [Em] felt the snow.
[C] [D]
The [G] woods down [E] here are quiet [G] now, [Em] where [C] once they [D] rang with shouts and laughter.
[G] Songs that [Em] echoed through the veil, as [C] children left [D] they [G] followed after.
[C] The streams that once
jumped [D] and [G] swam, the old oak tree we gathered [D] [G] under.
The child inside [Em] has lost these sights,
the [C] child inside [D] has lost [C] the [G] wonder.
[E] [G]
[C] [D] [G]
What we've [N] decided to do is to try to practice what we preach,
to design the performances so that they can hopefully start to bring people together,
to create social bonds where there weren't bonds before.
And so we've been talking to charities
who've been engaging with the issue of loneliness to try to work out how best we might do that.
And
we're slowly coming up with ideas for making the performances quite collaborative, for bringing
people in, for getting them talking to each other, and [E] most importantly for turning them into a party
at the end, where we go to a pub and find ways of crossing boundaries between groups of people
who know each other and introducing them to each other, so that the evening, the event goes on
beyond the actual performance.
If I am to win then you have to fail, and each but himself
left on us the tale.
If I am to live then you have to die, this my friend is the time on a fly.
This my friend is the time on a fly, [A] that is such a [E] thing as society, [A] it keeps us [E] from losing our minds.
It's working and living and laughing together that makes us
[C] [D]
[G] [Em] [G]
[C] [D]
[G] [A] I'm George Monbiot and [N] I've been collaborating with Ewan McLennan on an album called Breaking
the Spell of Loneliness.
It began when I wrote an article about the epidemic of loneliness and
what a weird thing it is.
Here we are with seven billion people on earth, we are the hyper-social
mammal who, you know, can't survive in evolutionary history, we couldn't survive for one night by
ourselves, and yet here we are succumbing to this massive epidemic of social isolation.
How could this be?
Why was this happening?
And to my surprise the article went viral
and I had a couple of publishers got in touch with me saying would you write a book about it?
And I thought yeah I really want to spend three years sitting on my backside writing about
loneliness, I can't think of anything better.
But then I thought I do want to do something with it,
but something that's not writing, because writing is an isolating process, I mean I couldn't think
of anything more depressing.
But then it struck me that well maybe the answer is music, because
music automatically begins to bring people together, it sort of almost answers its own question.
Only one problem, I can't play a note of music and my singing's banned under international law,
so I went to someone who can, a musician I've greatly admired for some time,
though he's still a young man, Ewan McLennan, and I proposed a collaboration.
The way we've gone
about it is that I've come up with a story and then written a brief lyric sketch of how the
lyrics might go, sometimes in blank verse, sometimes in rhyming verse, pretty rough,
and then passed it on to Ewan with the understanding that he can do whatever he'd like with it.
And in some cases it hasn't made the cut, in some cases chunks of it have gone through more or less
intact, and in other cases he's made radical changes to it.
And that sort of understanding
that he can sort of use it as he wishes seems to have worked pretty well.
I'll give you an example
of a lyric sketch that I wrote and then you can hear what Ewan's done with it.
This is called
The Child Inside, I'll read just a bit of it.
The woods are quiet now where once they rang with
shouts.
The songs that echoed through the veil and down the generations gone.
The streams once
splashed and swam are still.
Conkers uncollected on the forest floor, dandelion clocks unblown.
The [G] child inside is a child inside, lost in a humming world [C] where birds don't sing and breezes
[D] never [G] blow.
The child inside is a child inside, shut in a [E] sunless place that knows [G] no spring,
has never [Em] felt the snow.
[C] [D]
The [G] woods down [E] here are quiet [G] now, [Em] where [C] once they [D] rang with shouts and laughter.
[G] Songs that [Em] echoed through the veil, as [C] children left [D] they [G] followed after.
[C] The streams that once
jumped [D] and [G] swam, the old oak tree we gathered [D] [G] under.
The child inside [Em] has lost these sights,
the [C] child inside [D] has lost [C] the [G] wonder.
[E] [G]
[C] [D] [G]
What we've [N] decided to do is to try to practice what we preach,
to design the performances so that they can hopefully start to bring people together,
to create social bonds where there weren't bonds before.
And so we've been talking to charities
who've been engaging with the issue of loneliness to try to work out how best we might do that.
And
we're slowly coming up with ideas for making the performances quite collaborative, for bringing
people in, for getting them talking to each other, and [E] most importantly for turning them into a party
at the end, where we go to a pub and find ways of crossing boundaries between groups of people
who know each other and introducing them to each other, so that the evening, the event goes on
beyond the actual performance.
If I am to win then you have to fail, and each but himself
left on us the tale.
If I am to live then you have to die, this my friend is the time on a fly.
This my friend is the time on a fly, [A] that is such a [E] thing as society, [A] it keeps us [E] from losing our minds.
It's working and living and laughing together that makes us
Key:
G
C
D
E
Em
G
C
D
[G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ [G] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] I'm George Monbiot and [N] I've been collaborating with Ewan McLennan on an album called Breaking
the Spell of Loneliness.
It began when I wrote an article about the epidemic of loneliness and
what a weird thing it is.
Here we are with seven billion people on earth, we are the hyper-social
mammal who, you know, can't survive in evolutionary history, we couldn't survive for one night by
ourselves, and yet here we are succumbing to this massive epidemic of social isolation.
How could this be?
Why was this happening?
And to my surprise the article went viral
and I had a couple of publishers got in touch with me saying would you write a book about it?
And I thought yeah I really want to spend three years sitting on my backside writing about
loneliness, I can't think of anything better.
But then I thought I do want to do something with it,
but something that's not writing, because writing is an isolating process, I mean I couldn't think
of anything more depressing.
But then it struck me that well maybe the answer is music, because
music automatically begins to bring people together, it sort of almost answers its own question.
Only one problem, I can't play a note of music and my singing's banned under international law,
so I went to someone who can, a musician I've greatly admired for some time,
though he's still a young man, Ewan McLennan, and I proposed a collaboration.
The way we've gone
about it is that I've come up with a story and then written a brief lyric sketch of how the
lyrics might go, sometimes in blank verse, sometimes in rhyming verse, pretty rough,
and then passed it on to Ewan with the understanding that he can do whatever he'd like with it.
And in some cases it hasn't made the cut, in some cases chunks of it have gone through more or less
intact, and in other cases he's made radical changes to it.
And that sort of understanding
that he can sort of use it as he wishes seems to have worked pretty well.
I'll give you an example
of a lyric sketch that I wrote and then you can hear what Ewan's done with it.
This is called
The Child Inside, I'll read just a bit of it.
The woods are quiet now where once they rang with
shouts.
The songs that echoed through the veil and down the generations gone.
The streams once
splashed and swam are still.
Conkers uncollected on the forest floor, dandelion clocks unblown.
The [G] child inside is a child inside, lost in a humming world [C] where birds don't sing and breezes
[D] never [G] blow.
The child inside is a child inside, shut in a [E] sunless place that knows [G] no spring,
has never [Em] felt the snow.
[C] _ _ [D] _
The [G] _ _ _ woods down [E] here are quiet [G] now, [Em] where [C] once they [D] rang with shouts and laughter.
[G] _ Songs that [Em] echoed through the veil, as [C] children left [D] they [G] followed after.
[C] The streams that once
jumped [D] and [G] swam, the old oak tree we gathered [D] [G] under.
The child inside [Em] has lost these sights,
the [C] child inside [D] has lost [C] the [G] wonder. _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ [G] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _
What we've [N] decided to do is to try to practice what we preach,
to design the performances so that they can hopefully start to bring people together,
to create social bonds where there weren't bonds before.
And so we've been talking to charities
who've been engaging with the issue of loneliness to try to work out how best we might do that.
And
we're slowly coming up with ideas for making the performances quite collaborative, for bringing
people in, for getting them talking to each other, and [E] most importantly for turning them into a party
at the end, where we go to a pub _ and find ways of crossing boundaries between groups of people
who know each other and introducing them to each other, so that the evening, the event goes on
beyond the actual performance.
If I am to win then you have to fail, and each but himself
left on us the tale.
If I am to live then you have to die, this my friend is the time on a fly.
_ This my friend is the time on a fly, _ _ [A] that is such a [E] thing as society, [A] it keeps us [E] from losing our minds.
It's working and living and laughing together that makes us
_ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ [G] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] I'm George Monbiot and [N] I've been collaborating with Ewan McLennan on an album called Breaking
the Spell of Loneliness.
It began when I wrote an article about the epidemic of loneliness and
what a weird thing it is.
Here we are with seven billion people on earth, we are the hyper-social
mammal who, you know, can't survive in evolutionary history, we couldn't survive for one night by
ourselves, and yet here we are succumbing to this massive epidemic of social isolation.
How could this be?
Why was this happening?
And to my surprise the article went viral
and I had a couple of publishers got in touch with me saying would you write a book about it?
And I thought yeah I really want to spend three years sitting on my backside writing about
loneliness, I can't think of anything better.
But then I thought I do want to do something with it,
but something that's not writing, because writing is an isolating process, I mean I couldn't think
of anything more depressing.
But then it struck me that well maybe the answer is music, because
music automatically begins to bring people together, it sort of almost answers its own question.
Only one problem, I can't play a note of music and my singing's banned under international law,
so I went to someone who can, a musician I've greatly admired for some time,
though he's still a young man, Ewan McLennan, and I proposed a collaboration.
The way we've gone
about it is that I've come up with a story and then written a brief lyric sketch of how the
lyrics might go, sometimes in blank verse, sometimes in rhyming verse, pretty rough,
and then passed it on to Ewan with the understanding that he can do whatever he'd like with it.
And in some cases it hasn't made the cut, in some cases chunks of it have gone through more or less
intact, and in other cases he's made radical changes to it.
And that sort of understanding
that he can sort of use it as he wishes seems to have worked pretty well.
I'll give you an example
of a lyric sketch that I wrote and then you can hear what Ewan's done with it.
This is called
The Child Inside, I'll read just a bit of it.
The woods are quiet now where once they rang with
shouts.
The songs that echoed through the veil and down the generations gone.
The streams once
splashed and swam are still.
Conkers uncollected on the forest floor, dandelion clocks unblown.
The [G] child inside is a child inside, lost in a humming world [C] where birds don't sing and breezes
[D] never [G] blow.
The child inside is a child inside, shut in a [E] sunless place that knows [G] no spring,
has never [Em] felt the snow.
[C] _ _ [D] _
The [G] _ _ _ woods down [E] here are quiet [G] now, [Em] where [C] once they [D] rang with shouts and laughter.
[G] _ Songs that [Em] echoed through the veil, as [C] children left [D] they [G] followed after.
[C] The streams that once
jumped [D] and [G] swam, the old oak tree we gathered [D] [G] under.
The child inside [Em] has lost these sights,
the [C] child inside [D] has lost [C] the [G] wonder. _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ [G] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _
What we've [N] decided to do is to try to practice what we preach,
to design the performances so that they can hopefully start to bring people together,
to create social bonds where there weren't bonds before.
And so we've been talking to charities
who've been engaging with the issue of loneliness to try to work out how best we might do that.
And
we're slowly coming up with ideas for making the performances quite collaborative, for bringing
people in, for getting them talking to each other, and [E] most importantly for turning them into a party
at the end, where we go to a pub _ and find ways of crossing boundaries between groups of people
who know each other and introducing them to each other, so that the evening, the event goes on
beyond the actual performance.
If I am to win then you have to fail, and each but himself
left on us the tale.
If I am to live then you have to die, this my friend is the time on a fly.
_ This my friend is the time on a fly, _ _ [A] that is such a [E] thing as society, [A] it keeps us [E] from losing our minds.
It's working and living and laughing together that makes us
Facts about this song