Chords for Spider John Koerner

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_ [F#] _ [B] _ [E] _ _ _
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[E] _ _ [A] _ I _
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[B] _ _ [Em] _ _ [A] _ _
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[E] came here to go to the university.
[A]
Came as a engineering student in 56.
I was [N] a good student
for about a year and a half and [B] then some guy [E] showed me [B] a guitar and some [Bm] folk music and that
was the beginning of one thing and [G] the end [B] of another.
_ [Am] And after, oh I don't [D#] know, a year or
[Am] so of playing, I met Dave Ray and Tony Glover and then I kind of got into, [E] you know, trying to follow
what the old [N] black blues, southern blues guys were recording in the 20s and 30s and eventually
[D] set us into a recording [G] career.
John [C] Harney was [G] a desperate little man.
[C] _ Carried on razor [G] everyday.
_ _ [C] He killed a man [G] on the Westport City line.
Not a scene John Harney could win.
_ _ It was a little bit of a surprise to me.
Part of it was just the sensuousness [C] of the music and part [G] of it was _ there's [B] some pretty good poetry in a lot of those songs and that interested me. _ _ _
[E] Adelia cursed out Tony on a Saturday _ [A] night.
Cursed [E] him such a wicked [B] curse he swore he'd take her [E] life.
Adelia's gone, [B] one more round [E] Adelia's [A] gone.
[E] _
_ [B] First [E] time he shot her and he [C#] shot [E] her in the side.
[A] The second [E] time he shot [B] her, well she lay down and died.
[E]
Adelia's gone, one [B] more round [E] Adelia's gone.
I eventually decided I didn't want to try to be a black guy anymore and switched over to playing [G#m] just traditional folk music.
[E]
Actually I quit music forever [B] and that lasted about a year, _ [E] but during that time, I don't know, [A] it was like a change of life.
[E] And we had some folk music books around the house and I started realizing that the quality of these songs was really top notch.
[B] [E] 99 years in [B] a prison, [A] hey Judge Ali, no time _ _ [E]
for [B] these doing 999.
[E] Adelia's gone, [B] one more round [E] Adelia's [F#] gone.
[E] _
_ [B] Tony's [E] in the jailhouse drinking out of a silver cup.
[A] Adelia's [E] in the graveyard, [B] she won't get up.
[E] Adelia's gone, [B] one more round [E] Adelia's [F#] gone.
[E] _
_ [B] Jailer, [E] hey now jailer, how can I sleep?
[A] All [E] around my bed at night [B] I can hear little Adelia's [E] feet.
Adelia's gone, [B] one more round [E] Adelia's gone. _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ [A] _ _ _ _ [B] _
[E] _ _ Adelia's Gone [F#] [E] is traditional.
I call it [B] one of the Frankie and [E] Johnny Syndrome [B] songs.
This is obviously an old theme, you [G#m] can read about it in the newspapers every [C#] now and then.
[E] See that's one of the interesting things about [B] the traditional material.
[E] What you have is something that's been worked over by the culture.
So now you've got a material that [A] pertains to the culture more than it does to any particular individual.
[G#m] And of course these songs are still around because they've got some depth to them.
[E] _ _ _
[A] Yeah, [C#m] _ _ [F#] _ [B] _
[E] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[B] _ [E] _ I've been called an icon and a legend and like that, and it's hard [D#] to know [B] what they really mean by that, to tell you the truth.
I [E] think I understand it a little bit, you know, I've been around for a long time and I've treated the music with [F] respect [A#] and done it well enough so that people appreciate it.
And all that's okay with me.
Minnesota Original [Fm] [A#] is made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage [F] Fund [A#] and the [F] citizens of Minnesota.
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