Chords for Jim White - Jailbird

_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Gm] Well, I grew up in this [Ab] neighborhood.
I'm here with my friend Pat.
Pat's brother Bill
and I were good friends in the second grade.
I went out to Pat's house.
I probably didn't
talk to him because he was a little kid and I was a big second grader.
[N] But we've stuck
up a friendship after not really knowing each other for 53 years.
We're doing a house concert
here and this is my neighborhood.
There's a park right across the street.
Under that
lamppost is a little girl named Hope.
[F] Her name was Hope.
I was in first [Ab] grade and she
was in first grade.
She was in my class.
[N] She tugged on my sleeve.
I was staring at the
sky thinking that I was guiding a jet plane with my finger.
The plane was going over and
I'm guiding that jet plane.
And she said, they shot President Kennedy.
And I put my
hand down and I said, you're a liar.
I don't know why I said that.
She was a sweet girl.
But I just, I couldn't, I was a little kid and I guess I just couldn't process the information.
And I've been in fights in that park and I stopped a crime in that park once.
My school
was just down the street.
I just met Reynolds School.
And I never really fit in in this
town.
Never, never did.
And as, when you're a kid, not fitting in is hard, but when you
get to be a teenager, it becomes harder and harder and harder.
And I guess when I was
15 or 16, I just started feeling that I was going to die if I stayed here any longer.
It just felt like I was swimming in poison.
And so I started saving my money thinking
I'm going to get out of here.
And I left when I graduated high school, 18.
I moved away
and I was gone for about three years.
I went to the promised land, California, and I was
surfing and leading the life.
And all of a sudden I wanted to come home.
And it didn't
make any sense.
I knew I hated this place.
And I came home and had the worst experiences
of my life and fled again.
And then I was away for a couple of years and I just had
to come back.
And I keep coming back.
It's like, I feel like I'm trying to somehow or
other prepare myself for the place where this feels like home.
_ And I don't know if it'll
ever happen, but that's what I'm aiming for.
Because there's so many good people here that
I love.
There's just something, there's something heavy about the town.
And I wrote this song
about wanting to get out of here.
I used to tell people that that wall of green pine
trees, that 30 foot wall of green pine trees, it felt like I was in a prison the whole time.
First time I got to a place where there was open vistas.
I remember I came over a rise
driving west to California that first time.
And there was the city of El Paso spread out
at nighttime.
It was three in the morning.
I'd been driving for 20 hours straight.
There
was El Paso.
All the lights spread out and I could see the mountains in the distance.
And I thought, okay, I'm out of that [D] prison.
But I wasn't because the prison was [E] in here.
And that's what the song talks about.
[B] It's called Jailbird.
[C] _
_ [D] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ Dixie [D] is a scourge and a scar, [C] and a girl in my heart [D] and a state of mind.
Jesus is
the man with the plan.
[C] He's a short-haired Mexican [D] friend of mine.
[Am] Them small town clowns
[D] will drag you [C] down, can't leave [D] your past behind.
Hear the wipers and the rain tapping
out [C] time.
We're coming [D] up on a new state line. _ _
[G] _ I want to [A] be a [Em] jailbird.
[G] From the prison mound,
[D] damn, I'm going to get [Am] me a fast [Em] car.
[G] Set out and see what [D] I can find.
Break up the
well [Em] of tears and disappear.
[G] Leave [D] myself behind.
I'm going to be [Am] a jailbird [Em] [Gm] from the
prison [D] mound, damn, I'm going to.
_ _ _ [Am] Midnight, [D] take a shortcut [C] through the downtown [G] cemetery.
[Am] I'm stepping on [D] graves.
[C] Check the statue [G] of the Virgin Mary.
[Am] She's catching moonlight
[D] in the shadows, [C]
[G] revealing spider webs.
Can you [Am] see the black [D] widow [C] hung between [E] our ladies'
hands?
_ [Em] I want to be [Am] a jailbird [Em] from the [G] prison [D] mound, damn, I'm going to get [A] me a fast car.
[Em] [G] Set out and see what [D] I can find.
[A] Break up the well of [Em] tears and disappear.
Leave myself
[D] behind.
I'm [Am] going to be a [Em] jailbird [G] from the prison mound, [D] damn, I'm going _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ [Em] _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _
[Am] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [Am] _
_ [Em] _ _ [G] _ [E] _ _ [Am] _ _
[Em] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ to.
[E] Now, it
used to [D] be when I was young, [C] I was so hungry [G] for oblivion.
My thoughts [D] would linger [C] like
fingers [G] in a deadly web.
[Am] But in time, a sorrow showed its [C] face.
In kind, [G] I learned to ache
for [A] grace.
To work and pray to one day [C] be delivered [G] whole, alive [E] and free.
_ [G] _ I want to
[Am] be a [Em] jailbird from [G] the prison mound, damn, I'm [Am] going to get me a fast [Em] car.
[Gm] Set out and
see what I [D] can find.
Break up [Am] the well of [Em] tears and disappear.
[G] Leave myself [D] behind.
I'm going to be a [Em] jailbird [G] from the prison [D] mound, damn, I'm going to.
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [Em] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ [D] _ [Am] _ _ [Em] _ _
[G] _ [D] _ _ [Am] _ _ [Em] _ _ [Gm] _
_ [D] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [N] _ _
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