Chords for Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs Interviewed on NBC Sunday Today, 1989

_ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _
[Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
thousand in number nor maniacs on the bandstand.
They are four men and a woman,
a beguiling rock folk band from upstate New York.
Their repertoire is a virtual
litany of social issues put to music.
Poverty, child abuse, teenage [A] pregnancy,
Nicaragua.
In some ways the maniacs are an unlikely success story, but successful they are.
_ [E] _ _ _
[D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [D] _
_ [A] _ _ _ [Em] They've been called [D] the public television [A] of pop music.
[E] They sing about
issues, [F] their words are meaningful.
[Em] You know it's kind of neat because [E] this band
I could talk to my parents relate to it. _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ Ten thousand maniacs, their name may be confusing but [B] the message in their music
is not.
There's songs about child abuse and to me that's [E] important.
Ten [A] thousand
maniacs may not look like a major rock band but they're on their way to
becoming just that.
Their 1986 [Em] album In My Tribe [A] went platinum selling over 1
million copies and the current release Blind Man's Zoo spent 13 weeks on
[D] Billboard's top 20.
[Gb] When I started playing with the band and singing it
it started to make [D] sense.
I want to [E] create something [B] _ and this is what I
want to create.
25 year old Natalie Merchant is the group's [Abm] lyricist,
vocalist and spiritual leader.
She and the [Em] band met eight years ago at [C] the
local college [G] radio station in [C] Jamestown, New York.
[D] A small industrial town where
they all grew up.
[G] _ _ _ [C] For Merchant, [G]
music became an [C] escape from the boredom [G] of
small-town life.
[C] We had a tent [Eb] that we traveled with and if the tent didn't
work out we'd just start going [Bb] through the audience and asking people if we
could sleep on [G] their floors. _
[Gb] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ Today it's her [G] songs that are asking the questions.
The music of Ten Thousand
Maniacs is the [E] platform from which Merchant challenges the world around her.
There's this desire in me to speak of what's important and not waste time.
[A] I'm
singing songs about child abuse and illiteracy _ [N] and _ _ orphans of war and things
of that nature and I can't really treat them lightheartedly.
Child abuse, you talk
about pregnancy, war.
Do you think those are women's issues? _
_ I think that this most
recent album has the strongest _ feminist voice that I've ever allowed myself to
have.
_ [F] _ There's definitely [Bb] _ very strong issues that women would understand on
[Ab] this album.
I'm also [Cm] speaking on behalf of _ [Bbm] four men who are in the [Db] band.
Is that a
[Ab] problem?
You're speaking on behalf, as you say, [Cm] of four [C] men.
Any [Bbm] conflicts that
there are resolved before the [Db] album comes out. _
[Ab] Once I rewrote the lyrics
[Bbm] three times to a song [Fm] because no one else in the group [Cm] agreed with what I was
saying.
_ _ _ The issues that she has chosen to sing about puts Merchant in an elite new
group of women [A] rockers.
Artists like Tracy Chapman and [A] Suzanne Vega, [Gbm] whose social
[E] concerns distinguish their [Gbm] music.
Do you [Ab] think your music makes a difference in
people's lives?
[A] Maybe.
A lot of our audience is young and I think maybe my
song, Campfire Song, _ [G] which talks about _ [A] _ [D] greed in relation to the [A] environment, that
[Bm] this song will affect them [G] in some way, the way that they think.
_ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _
And [D] _ _ _ I know that
[A] the songs do in [Db] a way affect people because [G] they write me letters and I talk
to them.
[D] That's really great, this communication.
_ [A] _ _
[G] One song that [A] has struck a
particular [G] chord among her fans is The Big [C] Parade, the story [G] of a young boy
visiting his [Am] father's name on the Vietnam War [G] Memorial.
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] I had a woman who [N] actually sent me her father's Purple Heart, _ who had been _ a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and died.
To her, [A] the medal didn't really mean anything.
[B] I left the letter and the Purple Heart at the War [Eb] Memorial because I didn't [D] feel comfortable having it either.
[N] _ _ _ _ Did you [Ab] write her back and tell her [G] that?
Mm-hmm. _ _ _
[N] Trouble Me is reportedly about your father. _
I think that's what made me write the song.
My father was very ill and in the hospital _ _ and I _ would go and sit with him for hours and hours. _ _
I started feeling like I wasn't just the child anymore.
I was becoming a caretaker _ instead of always being taken care [Bm] of.
So [G] the song, Trouble Me, is all just _
[A] asking [Bm] him to let [G] me show that I care [D] for him. _
Ten Thousand Maniacs' unexpected success has [B] put Natalie Merchant in a [D] difficult position.
[Em] She worries about being swallowed up by [B] the commercial [C] system that she and the band have tried so hard to [G] avoid.
Can you be a rock and roll star?
Can you be out touring?
I can't be a rock and roll star.
_ [N] You don't consider yourself a rock and roll?
No, I could never be a rock and roll star.
There's an arrogance that goes along with that that I just can't justify.
[Db] I [A] _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ [Dbm] _ _ [A] _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ [Db] _ [A] think [B] America is really [Eb] obsessed with its pop [B] culture and its pop [A] celebrities.
_ [B] That's not always such a healthy thing.
[Db] _
_ [E] _ _ [B] I hope I [Db] express some joy with my body when I'm [E] dancing. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ You can't work for a better world unless you [Gb] know what a good life [Eb] is.
Merchant [Gb] says her life will always include [Abm] music, but perhaps without Ten Thousand [Gm] Maniacs.
[Eb] She denies industry gossip that [Gb] she'll leave the group, but she [Eb] doesn't rule out solo projects. _
[Db] _ _ I think about doing a different type of [Bb] music that maybe we're not capable [Eb] of doing.
There's a lot [Bb] of music that I would like to make, and it doesn't [Cm] always have a drum kit in it when I hear it in my head.
_ [Bb] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _
_ [Eb] Ten Thousand Maniacs have been able to voice many of the [Ab] concerns of their generation.
And [Gm] while Natalie Merchant [Eb] is pleased [Gm] with the band's [Ab] success, she still [Abm]
grapples with the prospect [Eb] of fame.
I'm [Ab] getting a new [Bb] doll. _
_ _ _ [N] You're certainly going in the direction of becoming less and less anonymous.
It's possible.
At a certain point, it gets beyond your control, I think.
We've been able to contain it, I think.
Mostly because people weren't that interested. _
But you're not willing to stop it, in other words. _ _
_ _ _ _ That's a question that I have, when to stop.
There's [Ab] always been a thought in my mind that there'll come a day when I just say that's enough and I'll just retire and not be seen again. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ But right now, [B] I'm still investigating, and [Am] what I'm investigating is the [E] human condition. _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
I'm not going to retire again by the time you say goodbye.
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _