Starry Stairs Okkervil River
"Starry Stairs," from the album "The Stand Ins"
INTRO:
[E] [/] [E] [/] [Abm] [/] [Abm]
[C#m] [/] [B] [/] [A] [/] [A]
[F#m] [/] [F#m] [/] [C#m] [/] [C#m]
[B] [/] [B] [/] [C#m] [B] [/] [A]
VERSE:
They asked for [E]more.
(What do you [Abm]think this fan club is [C#m]for?)[B]
I slithered [A]up each rose corri[F#m]dor.
I kept a [C#m]warm, safe place at my [B]core,[C#m] [B]
before I [A]lost it.
They asked for [E]blood.
What do you [Abm]think this woman's made [C#m]of?[B]
I stuck a [A]small, thin pin in my [F#m]thumb.
They dreamt a [C#m]low, long line to be [B]crossed--[C#m] [B]
and I [A]crossed it.
CHORUS:
I'm a[B]live, but a different kind of alive[C#m]
than the way I used to be.[B] [C#m] [B] [A]
I re[B]tire to a split white smile to be seen[C#m]
in an old stag magazine.[B] [C#m] [B] [A]
(VERSE)
And this girl's eyes,
when they were roughly wrenched open, I
could see a starry stair up your thigh.
You hid behind your hair (oh, but I
saw you were smiling),
(CHORUS)
while all these [B]guys, all these curious sets of eyes,[C#m]
safe behind a TV screen,[B] [C#m] [B] [A]
I let them [B]pry, pick apart and hang up to dry[C#m]
almost every piece of me.[B] [C#m] [B] [A] [B] [C#m] [B] [A]
N.C.
(If you don't love me, I'm sorry.)
INTERLUDE:
(SAME AS INTRO / VERSE)
(VERSE)
Oh, what a trip.
Oh, what a shimmering silver ship.
Oh, what a hot half-life I half-lived.
And the stripes and stars, how they stripped
off of the siding
when my life ripped
off from the part that played as a kid
into the part that blazed through your lids
to find a warm, safe place and to sit,
curled up, inside it.
(CHORUS)
So here's "goodbye," from the part that's staying behind
to the part that has to leave,
to the sublime lips that were never spoiled by a line,
to the face inside the beam,
OUTRO:
who wasn't me.[B] [C#m] [B] [A]
Who wasn't me, [B]oh n[C#m]o no,[B] [A]
She's not me, [B] [C#m] [B]oh [A]oh.
Important: The song above is NOT stored on the Chordie server. The original song is hosted at www.azchords.com. Chordie works as a search engine and provides on-the-fly formatting. Chordie does not index songs against artists'/composers' will. To remove this song please click here.
