Chords for John Prine on Austin City Limits "Sam Stone" (1988)

_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ Not too long ago, we played Washington, D.C. late this summer, and we had an extra day
to hang around and didn't have to do anything or be anywhere.
So we decided we'd take in, be a tourist for a day and just go around and see some of the
things in the nation's capital.
My buddy Al Bonetta had his video camera, which he hasn't sat down since he [Db] got it.
_ [G] You know how that [F] goes too.
_ _ Some people just can't get unattached from those things when they get them, you know.
_ But we went around and went to the Lincoln Memorial and went over where Kennedy's buried.
_ We went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial there, the big black wall they got.
We looked up some friends whose names were on the wall.
If you've never been there or seen anything about it, you look them up like in a phone book.
You go on over to the section of the wall where your friend's name is or your relative or whatever.
_ It's a real shiny black marble wall.
You stand there looking at your friend's name, you see your reflection in the wall.
So it's sort of a fitting memorial, I think.
If you ever get a chance to go see it, I suggest you do.
This is Sam Stone. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ Sam Stone came home to his [Bb] wife and family [C] after serving in the [F] conflict overseas.
_ _ And the time that he'd served [Bb] had shattered all his nerves [C] and left a little shrapnel in his knee.
[F] But _ [Bb] the morphine eased the pain and the grass grew round his brain
and [G] gave him all the confidence [C] he'd lacked.
_ _ [G] With a purple heart and a monkey [C] on his back,
_ _ _ [F] there's a hole in Daddy's arm [Gm] where all the money goes. _ _ _
[Bb] And Jesus Christ died for [C] nothing, I suppose. _
_ [F] Little pictures have big ears.
[Dm] Don't stop to count the years.
Sweet [G] songs never last too [C] long on broken radios.
_ [F] _
_ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ Sam Stone's welcome home [Bb] didn't last too long.
_ _ _ [C] He went to work when he'd spent his [F] last day.
_ _ _ And Sammy took to stealing when he [Bb] got that empty feeling
for a [C] hundred dollar habit [Bb] [F] without overtime. _ _
_ And the [Bb] gold rolled through his veins like a thousand [Gm] year old train
and [G] eased his mind in the hours [C] that he chose.
_ _ While [G] the kids ran around wearing other [C] people's clothes, _ _ _
[F] there's a hole in Daddy's arm where all [Gm] the money goes.
_ _ [Bb] And Jesus Christ died for [C] nothing, I suppose.
_ [F] Little pictures have big ears.
Don't [A] stop to count the [Dm] years.
Sweet songs never last too [C] long on broken radios.
_ [F] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ Sam Stone was alone when he [Bb] popped his last balloon,
_ [C]
climbing walls while sitting [F] in a chair. _ _
Well, he played his last request while the room [Bb] smelled just like beer
with [C] an overdose of it in the air.
_ _ But [Bb] life had lost its fun and there was nothing to be done.
[Dm] Betrayed his [G] house that he bought on [C] the GI Bill,
_ _ a [G] four-flagged drape casket on a local [C] hero's heel. _ _
_ There's a [F] hole in Daddy's arm where [Gm] all the money goes.
_ _ _ [Bb] And Jesus Christ died for nothing, [C] I suppose.
_ Little [F] pictures have big ears.
Don't [Dm] stop to count the years.
[G] Sweet songs never last too [C] long on broken radios.
_ [F] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _