Chords for Linton Kwesi Johnson & Dennis Bovell Dub Band / jam/uk " STORY " - Live & Reggaeland 2008

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_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ You _ [N] _ _ _ _
_ know what I forgot to tell you? _ _
This is my second time in Poland. _ _
_ I just remembered I came here nearly 20 years ago in _ 1989 _ to do an anti-apartheid [Eb] benefit
_ _ [N] organized by Solidarity in the town of Gdansk.
_ I just thought I would let you know that.
_ _ _ _ Right now I would like to do for you a number _ _ which is talking _ about the experience that
the black youth of my generation had in England with a law that we call the SUS law. _
SUS being short for suspicion. _ _
Under this law a significant _ section of my generation [Eb] of black youth were _ criminalized
by [D] racist police officers.
_ [Fm] _
Inferiorly you would be [D] arrested _ and convicted _ of attempting to steal from persons unknown.
[Gb] _ _
Your alleged victim was never produced in court to give evidence against you.
As long as the police officer was able to convince the magistrate that he had reason
of the grounds to believe that you intended to commit the [Eb] crime, that was all that was required.
So we had a campaign in England during [Ebm] the 1970s to get rid of this unjust law and I
[D] contributed a poem in the form of a [E] letter [Ab] written from [F] prison in England [N] to a mother
somewhere in the Caribbean.
It's called Sonny's Letter. _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
British town prison, _ _ [Am] never been in.
_ _ London South West [Dm] School, _ didn't go. _ _ _
Yeah mama, _ [Am] _ good day.
[Dm] I hope that when these blue lines reach you, [Am] they may find you in the best of health. _ _
_ [Dm] Mama, _ _ I really don't know how [Am] to tell you this, _ because I did make a solid [Dm] promise to
take you early to jail _ [Am] and try my best to look out for you. _
_ [Dm] _ Mama, _ _ I really did [Am] try my best.
_ But nonetheless, _ I'm sorry to [Dm] tell you this, _ I was in jail in the [Am] garage.
_ _ _ It was in the middle of the rush [Dm] hour _ when everybody was [F] hustling and [Am] hustling to go
home because they needed a shower.
[Dm] _ Me and Jim stand up waiting for the bus.
[Am] _ The car's in the office. _
_ [Dm] When all of a sudden, a [Am] police van pulled up.
_ Out from three police [Dm] vans, _ one of them carrying a baton, _ _ then walked straight up [Am] to me and Jim.
_ [D] _ One of them went out [Dm] to Jim, _ and then [Am] he taken his head. _ _
Jim tell him to let go [Dm] of him, but I'm not going to do nothing. _
I'm not going to do [Am] anything.
Not even a [D] muscle.
_ [Em] But Jim starts to [N] wriggle, the police start to giggle.
_ _ Mama, let me tell you what they did to Jim.
_ Mama, let me tell you what they did to him.
_ [A] They pumped him in the [E] belly and he turned to jelly.
They make him pan his arms and he really get pumped.
They make him pan his head because he's tough like lead.
They kick him in the feet [G] and he start to bleed.
[E] _ _ [Gb] _ _
Mama, [Eb] I just couldn't stand up there and do nothing. _
[Am] But they took one in his eye and [Bm] he started to cry.
[Gbm] They pump one in his [G] mouth and he started to shout.
They [Am] kick one in his [Em] shin and he started to spin.
[E] They pump him by the chin and he drop by the bed and he cried. _
_ [Eb] And dead.
[Am] _ _ [D] _
Mama, _ [Gb] more police man come [A] down and [Gb] beat me to the ground.
_ [Am] _ They charge me with _ _ _ _ _ the murder.
_ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ Mama, don't fret.
_ [Am]
Don't get depressed and don't argue.
_ [Dm] We have good courage.
_ Till I [F] hear from you, [Am] _
_ I remain your _ [Dm] _
son's son. _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ Thank you very much.
[F] _