Before The Deluge Chords & Tabs
Before the Deluge – Jackson Browne
Intro: (play 2 times)
|G |C |G |C |
|G |C |G |D |
G
Some of them were dreamers
C G
And some of them were fools
Em C G C G
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
G
With the energy of the innocent
C G
They were gathering the tools
Em C G
G
They would need to make their journey back to nature
Em G
While the sand slipped through the opening
C G
And their hands reached for the golden ring
Em C D
D
With their hearts they turned to each other's heart for refuge
Em C G C G
In the troubled years that came before the deluge
G
Some of them knew pleasure
C G
And some of them knew pain
Em C G
G
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
G
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
C G
They went flying around in the rain
Em C G
G
And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered
Em G
And in the end they traded their tired wings
C G
For the resignation that living brings
Em C
And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow
D Em D
For the glitter and the rouge
Em C G C G
And in the moment they were swept before the deluge
G C G C
Now let the music keep our spirits high
G C
And let the buildings keep our children dry
G D G C
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by
G C
By and by...
G C G D
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
[ Tab from: https://www.guitartabs.cc/tabs/j/jackson_browne/before_the_deluge_crd.html ]
G
Some of them were angry
C G
At the way the earth was abused
Em C G
G
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
G
And they struggled to protect her from them
C G
Only to be confused
Em C G
G
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
Em G
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
C G
In the naked dawn only a few survived
Em C D
D
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Em C G
G
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
G C G C
Now let the music keep our spirits high
G C
And let the buildings keep our children dry
G D G C
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by
G C
By and by...
G C G D
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
Coda:
|G |C |G |C |
|G |C |G |D |
Repeat coda and fade
Transcribed by Gerard Koot (Amsterdam, Netherlands) – may 2007
email: gerardkoot@hotmail.com
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I’ve added a sample fingerstyle arrangement of the intro. The intro is not played like
the original recording but it’s a way of playing
the intro violin melody combined with chords.
The vertical lines (|) above the high e string indicate the quarter note beats of the measures.
Tuning: EADGBe
Intro:
G C G C
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
e|-----------------|---3---------5---|-7-----8-7-5-----|---3---------5---|
B|-3-----3-----3-5-|-----5-----------|-----8-------8-5-|-----5-----------|
G|-----4-----------|-------5---5---5-|---7-------------|-------5---5---5-|
D|---5-------5-----|-----------------|-5-------5-------|-----------------|
A|-----------------|-3-------3-------|-----------------|-3-------3-------|
E|-3-------3-------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
G C G
C/E D/F#
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
e|-7-----8-7-5-----|---3---------5---|-7-----7-------7-|-5-----5---------|
B|-----8-------8-5-|-----5-----------|-----8-------8---|-----7---8---10--|
G|---7-------------|-------5---5---5-|---7-------7-----|---7-----9---11--|
D|-5-------5-------|-----------------|-5-------5-------|-----------------|
A|-----------------|-3-------3-------|-----------------|-5-------7---9---|
E|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
