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Black Tab

by Bonnie Prince Billy


Whole song is just 3 chords, verse and chorus are the same. Bridge is slightly different. 

                
Black, you are my enemy
             
And I cannot get close to thee
                     
Our life is ruled by enmity
               
And I can't weaken that

                
The only way that I can see
           
Is to hold you close to me
                     
To love you for it's meant to be
          
I weaken your attack

Everything was lucked and downy
What was good was up from under
Until black, that awful tender
Came and popped my sense of wonder

All at once all eyes turned at him
Leaving me an unwatched body
And it sagged, my body's rib cage
Out from under ogler's study

Black was decomposing quickly
This was found offensive to me
His disrespect for life's proprieties
Made me scared he would destroy me

                
Black, you are my enemy
             
And I cannot get close to thee
                     
Our life is ruled by enmity
               
And I can't weaken that

                
The only way that I can see
           
Is to hold you close to me
                     
To love you for it's meant to be
          
I weaken your attack

So I thought I'd try to cut him
Try to force him 'neath my level
The only way to equal to him
Would be hit him with a shovel

But to really rise above him
That would be the final evil
So instead I asked the sucker
If he'd care to see my rooms

And as a friend and as a comrade
And all the things that these implied
I made him leave what it was that he had
Used to keep us unallied


                
Black, you are my enemy
              
And I cannot get close to thee
                     
Our life is ruled by enmity
               
And I can't weaken that

                
The only way that I can see
           
Is to hold you close to me
                     
To love you for it's meant to be
             
I weaken your attack 

BRIDGE:
              
Now black and I we are together
          
Fairly just inseparable
               
And in the terriblest of weather
    
Our bonds are incorruptible

CHORUS:
                
Black, you are my enemy
              
And I cannot get close to thee
                     
Our life is ruled by enmity
               
And I can't weaken that

                
The only way that I can see
           
Is to hold you close to me
                     
To love you for it's meant to be
             
I weaken your attack