Key: C
Introduction:
C D
I was born with the charm of innocence
A Bb
On my back like a cross
C D
Thorns upon my forehead
A Bb
Round my neck I wore it
C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
E
Sometimes an albatross
A C#m
It began at a school that turned boys into gentlemen
G Bm
Then turned them on to debauchery
A C#m
I was forced to my knees in front of these gentlemen
G Bm
If I refused they would torture me
A C#m
On Sundays I'd stalk the Botanical Garden
G Bm
And under my uniform something would harden
F E
Whenever I passed a girl of my own age
A C#m
Or did it begin with au pair girls from Germany
G Bm
Paid by the hour to look after us?
A C#m
Did it begin with that first opportunity
G Bm
To corner a stranger with nakedness?
A C#m
Maybe the clinical way they undressed me
G Bm
Stayed with me and deeply distressed me
F E
I think, at heart, I'm something of a prude
C D
I was born with the charm of innocence
A Bb
On my back like a cross
C D
Thorns upon my forehead
A Bb
Round my neck I wore it
C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
E
Sometimes an albatross
A C#m
Then at eighteen I decided I wanted
G Bm
To be a commercial photographer
A C#m
I rented a studio down by the docks
G Bm
Which I shared with a friendly pornographer
A C#m
I photographed models in fluorescent light
G Bm
Whose veins were so blue and whose breasts were so white
F E
I assumed, like the moon, women were blue cheese
A C#m
When I left home I already had five years
G Bm
Of self abuse under my belt
A C#m
I found certain women who'd let me try anything
G Bm
Just to find out how it felt
A C#m
In some garish hotel room with vile decoration
G Bm
The wallpaper witnessed my first pollination
F E
The paisley patterns witnessed an abortion
C D
I was born with the charm of innocence
A Bb
On my back like a cross
C D
Thorns upon my forehead
A Bb
Round my neck I wore it
C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
E
Sometimes an albatross
A C#m
In the army they taught me to share the abuse
G Bm
That I'd kept up 'til then to myself
A
There's nothing like killing
C#m G Bm
For coaxing a shy boy of twenty-one out of his shell
A C#m
In the dark continent with a peace-keeping force
G Bm
I fell in with a bunch of Algerian whores
F E
And promised them I'd try and keep in touch
B Ebm
We met up again in the eighteenth arrondisement
A C#m
I remember them well
B Ebm
Their lank stringy hair and their big bulbous noses
A C#m
Their unmistakable smell
B Ebm
I'd approach all the ugliest, seediest jerks
A C#m
And ask them to keep a young model in work
G F#
Some men, thank Christ, don't discriminate at all
C D
I was born with the charm of innocence
A Bb
On my back like a cross
C D
Thorns upon my forehead
A Bb
Round my neck I wore it
C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
E
Sometimes an albatross
A C#m
I will pass my old age by a pale two-bar fire
G Bm
Patiently waiting to die
A C#m
Twitching the lace as the schoolgirls go past
G Bm
Tracing a page of Bataille
A C#m
And if you catch sight of my secondhand coat
G Bm
Leaving behind it a faint whiff of goat
F E
Remember both of us are naked underneath
B Ebm
I thought it would end with the first obscene phone call
A C#m
The second professional kill
B Ebm
But somehow detached from my actual behavior
A C#m
This innocence burdens me still
B Ebm
Up in the attic I pick up the brush
A C#m
Paint in the crow's feet, paint out the blush
G F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of
G F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of
G G/F# G/E G/F# F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
G G/F# G/E G/F# F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
G G/F# G/E G/F# F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
G G/F# G/E G/F# F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
G G/F# G/E G/F# F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
G G/F# G/E G/F# F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
End on G.