Chords for James McMurtry - We Can't Make It Here

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_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [C] [G] There's a Vietnam [D] vet with a cardboard sign sitting there by the [G] left turn line, a flag
on his [F] wheelchair flapping in the [C] breeze, one leg [G] missing and both hands free. _ _ _
No one's paying [F] much mind [C] to him, the VA budgets [G] just stretch so thin, and there's more coming
[D] back from the Mideast War.
We can't make it here anymore.
_ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _
That big old [F] building was a textile [C] mill, it fed our [G] kids and it paid our bills, but
they turned us out [D] and they closed the door, so we can't make it [G] here anymore.
_ _ _ _ You see those pallets piled up [F] on the loading docks?
[C] They're just gonna sit there till they rot, cause there's nothing to [D] ship, nothing to
pack, just [G] busted concrete and rusted tracks.
The empty [D] storefront's around the square, there's a needle [G] in the gutter and glass everywhere,
you don't come down here unless you're [C] looking to score, we [G] can't make it here anymore.
_ _ [C] _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _
[G] _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _
The bar's still open, but man [C] it's slow, the tip jar's light [G] and the register's low, the
[Gm] bartender [F] don't have much to say, [C] the regular crowd gets [G] thinner each day.
_ _ Some have maxed out all their credit cards, [C] some are working two [G] jobs and living in cars,
minimum wage won't [C] pay for a roof, won't [C] pay for a drink if you [Gm] gotta have proof, distract
yourself [D] Mr.
CEO, see [C] how far [G] 515 an hour will go, take a part time [D] job in one of your stores,
I bet you can't make it here [G] anymore. _
_ [G] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [G] _ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _
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_ _ _ [G] Mother!
[C] Mother!
[G] _
The [C] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Gm] high school girl with the bourgeois [C] dream, just like the pictures [G] in the magazine, she
found on the floor of the [C] laundromat, a woman with [G] kids can forget all that, if she comes
up [C] pregnant, what'll she do?
Forget the [G] career, forget about school, can she live on faith, live [C] on hope, high [G] on Jesus
or hooked on dope, when it's way too late [C] to just say no, you [G] can't make it here anymore. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
[G] I'm stocking [D] shirts in the Walmart store, just like the [G] ones we made before, except
this one came from [F] Singapore, [G] I guess we can't make it here anymore.
_ _ _ _ _ _ Should I hate a people for the shade of their [C] skin, or the shape of their eyes, or the shape I'm in?
Should I hate them for [D] having our jobs today?
No, I hate [G] the men sent the jobs away.
_ _ I can see them all now, [D] they haunt my dreams, [C] all lily white [G] and squeaky clean, they never
known want, they'll never know need, the shit don't stink and the kids won't bleed, the
kids won't [D] bleed in the damn little war, and we can't make it [G] here anymore. _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _
_ _ [C] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I'm stocking [Gm] shirts [G] in the Walmart store, _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ [Gm] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ just like the pictures in the magazine, [G] I bet
they'll shower into us the spoils, the billionaires get to pay less tax, the working poor get
to fall through the cracks. _ _ _
So let them eat jelly beans, [F] let them eat [C] cake, let them [G] eat shit, whatever it takes,
they can join the Air Force [D] or join the Corps, if they can't make [G] it here anymore.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _
_ _ [C] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ [C] _ _ [G] So that's how it is, that's what we got, and if the president wants to admit it or not,
you can read it in the paper, read it on [C] the wall, hear it on the wind if you're listening
at all, get out of that limo [D] and look us in the eye, [C] call us on the cell [G] phone, tell us
all why, in Dayton, Ohio [D] or Portland, Maine [C] or a cotton gin out [G] on the great high plains,
it's done closed [Gm] down, along with the [G] school and the hospital and the swimming pool, dust
devils [F] dance in the noonday [C] heat, there's rats in [G] the alley and trash in the street,
gang [F] graffiti on a boxcar [D] door, _ [C] we can't make it here [G] anymore. _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
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