Key: C
Introduction: Cm Bb Cm Bb Cm Bb Cm Bb
Cm Eb
I was longing to be wooed
Ab Cm
I was ready to be humbled
Ab Cm
By the words that you had written
Bb Ab
By the syllables you mumbled
Cm Eb
Yeah, i was ready in my heart
Ab Cm
To have my heart invaded
Ab Cm
By the fervour of your passion
Bb Ab
Yes, i came to be persuaded
Cm Eb
But when i heard your ragged voice
Ab Cm
Something switched in my perception
Ab Cm
And i knew i was the victim
Bb Ab
Of a beautiful deception
Cm Eb
All my once exact beliefs
Ab Cm
Like tangled threads unravelled
Ab Cm
I walked out, stunned and liberated
Bb Ab
And so began my travels
Ab Eb
Keep the river on your right
Bb Cm
And the highway at your shoulder
Ab Eb Bb
And the front line in your sights, pioneer
Ab Cm
Keep your eye on the road
Bb Cm
Remember what you told her
Ab Fm Cm
This is all in code, my dear
Cm Eb
You better get yourself a coat
Ab Cm
Said the handsome taxi driver
Ab Cm
And he sighed like seven bridges
Bb Ab
Like a natural-born survivor
Cm Eb
As we drove into the night
Ab Cm
I could feel the forest jangling
Ab Cm
All the choices laid before me
Bb Ab Eb
And their consequences dangling
Cm Eb
We came upon a stricken ship
Ab Cm
That must have once been splendid
Ab Cm
The captain as he died said
Bb Ab
?boys, our revels now are endedâ?
Cm Eb
I heard a wild holy band
Ab Cm
Playing jazz that was outrageous,
Ab Cm
That recalled the days of rapture
Bb Ab
When our love was still young and contagious
Ab Eb
Keep the river on your right
Bb Cm
And the highway at your shoulder
Ab Eb Bb
And the front line in your sights, pioneer
Ab Cm
Keep your eye on the road
Bb Cm
Remember what you told her
Ab Fm Cm
This is all in code, my dear
Cm Eb
In a dim-lit motel room
Ab Cm
Two sad lovers were discoursing
Ab Cm
On the dignity of exile
Bb Ab
And the merits of divorcing
Cm Eb
She said ?all certainty is goneâ?
Ab Cm
But he leapt up, still denying,
Ab Cm
Cried ?i won?t believe the flame i lit
Bb Ab
Is dead or even dyingâ?
Ab Cm Eb
She left him drooling in the dust
Ab Cm
And with rucksack packed begun her
Ab Cm
Bitter journey to the border
Bb Ab
Which is where i wooed and won her
Cm Eb
She was aphrodite, helen, thetis,
Ab Cm
Eve among the satyrs
Ab Cm
She was venus in a v-neck sweater
Bb Ab
She was all that ever mattered
Ab Eb
Keep the river on your right
Bb Cm
And the highway at your shoulder
Ab Eb Bb
And the front line in your sights, pioneer
Ab Cm
Keep your eye on the road
Bb Cm
Remember what you told her
Ab Fm Cm
This is all in code, my dear
Cm Eb
Like dean moriarty?s ghost
Ab Cm
I came in quest of secret knowledge
Ab Cm
In the winter of my journey
Bb Ab
To a crumbling druid college
Cm Eb
There i read the books of lore
Ab Cm
And contemplated in seclusion
Ab Cm
But i took my leave embittered,
Bb Ab
Still in love with my illusions
Ab Cm Eb
In the drizzling irish rain
Ab Cm
As a tender dawn was breaking
Ab Cm
In a doorway i stood spellbound by
Bb Ab
The ancient music they were making
Cm Eb
I took my breakfast with the gods
Ab Cm
On a blushing summer morning
Ab Cm
Till a wind blew them all away
Bb Ab
I had misread every warning
Ab Eb
Keep the river on your right
Bb Cm
And the highway at your shoulder
Ab Eb Bb
And the front line in your sights, pioneer
Ab Cm
Keep your eye on the road
Bb Cm
Remember what you told her
Ab Fm Cm
This is all in code, my dear
Cm Eb
Under cold electric light
Ab Cm
I watch the scenes mutating
Ab Cm
Like an old time frontier ballad
Bb Ab
Or a carousel rotating
Cm Eb
As if in a moment from a film
Ab Cm
With astonishing precision
Ab Cm
The camera zooms in close
Bb Ab
And a figure comes into vision
Cm Eb
I?m in tokyo, it?s dawn
Ab Cm
And it?s raining hallelujahs
Ab Cm
Down the bright-lit neon canyons
Bb Ab
Along the sidewalks of shibuya