Chords for John Prine - "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" (Live)

[F] _ _ _ Thank you very much.
This is an old song I wrote when I was a mailman in Chicago back in 1968.
_ _ _ _ [N] We used to get _ several _ periodicals that we hated as mailmen.
One of them was Reader's Digest because it was so little, it was little enough to carry with the envelopes.
But it was real thick so you could only fit about three of them in your hand and you'd end up with about 300 bundles of mail a day.
Reader's Digest came in.
Now they'd give Reader's Digest subscription to anybody.
If you didn't write back in and say, no I don't want it, you joined the Columbia Record Club and you had a Reader's Digest.
_ Right after the Vietnam War got real ugly, _ _ people were, they called them the silent majority.
People all of a sudden decided to use the American flag for whatever they stood for. _
Next thing you know, Reader's Digest gave everybody a free American flag that you could stick anywhere you wanted to.
I thought it was kind of odd, you know, when I was delivering them.
The next day I came out and everybody had them stuck to their windows and their car bumpers and their mailboxes.
They didn't just put them up there, they [F] stuck them up there.
So I wrote this on a mail route.
I retired the song for years and years.
But after our last president started using the American flag to get everybody riled up, I thought I'd bring it back.
_ While _ _ _ digesting, Reader's Digest, [Bb] in the back of the dirty bookstore.
[C] A plastic flag with gum on the back, [F] flat on the floor.
Well I picked it up and I ran outside, slapped it on [Bb] my window shield.
And if [C] I could see old Betsy Ross, I'd tell her how good [F] I feel.
_ _ [Bb] But your flag, your cow won't get you [F] into heaven anymore.
They're [C] already _ overcrowded [F] from your dirty little war.
[Bb] Now Jesus don't like ya, [F] no matter what the reason's for.
And your [C] flag, your cow won't get you into heaven [F] anymore.
_ [Ab] _ [F] _ [Bb] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] Well I went to the bank this morning, [Bb] the cashier said to me,
[C] if you join the Christmas club we'll give you ten of them flags [F] for free.
Well I didn't mess around a bit, I took them up on [Bb] what he said.
And [C] I stuck them stickers all over my car and one on my [Em] wife's [F] forehead. _ _ _ _
Right there.
[Bb] _ But your flag, your cow won't get you [F] into heaven anymore.
They're [C] already _ overcrowded [F] from your dirty little war.
[Bb] Now Jesus don't like ya, no [F] matter what the reason's for.
[C] And your flag, your cow won't get you into heaven [F] anymore.
[Ab] _ _ [Bb] _
[C] Hey, pick one out Jason.
_ [F] _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ Well I got my window shield so filled with flags [Bb] I couldn't see.
[C] So I ran the car upside a curve, right into [F] a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down, I was [Bb] already dead.
[C] And I never understand why the man standing at the pearly [F] gates said to me, of all people,
_ _ but your [Bb] flag, your cow won't get you [F] into heaven anymore.
We're [C] already overcrowded [F] from your dirty little war.
[Bb]
Now Jesus don't like ya, [F] no matter what the reason's for.
And [C] your flag, your cow won't get you into heaven _ _ _
[F] anymore.
[Ab] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ Never will.
_ [Dm] _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _