Monkey & Bear by Joanna Newsom
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- Chords interpreted by CM -
- Transposed down 2 half-steps -
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Cm Db
Down in the green hay
C G F
Where monkey and bear usually lay
Cm Ab Cm
They woke from a stable-boy's cry
Cm Db
He said; someone come quick!
C G F
The horses got loose, got grass-sick!
Cm Ab Cm
They'll flounder, feign, they'll die
Fm G
What is now known by the sorrel and the roan?
Dm G
By the chestnut, and the bay, and the gelding grey?
Cm G F
It is: stay by the gate you are given
Cm G Ab
And remain in your place, for your season
Eb Bb Eb
And had the overfed dead but listened
Cm G F
To that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom...
Cm Db
Did you hear that, Bear?
C G F
Said Monkey, We'll get out of here, fair and square
Cm Ab Cm
They left the gate open wide
Cm F
So, my bride
Cm F
Here is my hand, where is your paw?
Cm F
Try and understand my plan, Ursala
Cm F
My heart is a furnace
Cm F
Full of love that's just, and earnest
Cm F
Now; you know that we must unlearn this
Cm F
Allegiance to a life of service
Cm F
And no longer answer to that heartless
Cm F
Hay-monger, nor be his accomplice
Cm F
(that charlatan, with artless hustling!)
Cm F
But; Ursala, we've got to eat something
Cm F
And earn our keep, while still within
Cm F
The borders of the land that man has girded
Cm F
(all double-bolted and tight-fisted!)
Cm F
Until we reach the open country
Cm F
A-steeped in milk and honey
Cm F
Will you keep your fancy clothes on, for me?
Cm F
Can you bear a little longer to wear that leash?
Cm F
My love, I swear by the air I breathe:
Ab Cm
Sooner or later, you'll bare your teeth
Cm F
But for now, just dance, darling
Cm G
C'mon, will you dance, my darling?
Cm Eb
Darling, there's a place for us
Ab Fm
Can we go, before I turn to dust?
Cm Eb
Oh my darling,
Ab Cm
There's a place for us
Oh darling
C'mon will you dance, my darling?
Oh, the hills are groaning with excess
Like a table ceaselessly being set
Oh my darling, we will get there yet
Cm Db
They trooped past the guards,
C G F
Past the coops, and the fields, and the farmyards
Cm Ab Cm
All night, till finally:
The space they gained grew
Much farther than the stone that bear threw
To mark where they'd stop for tea
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Fm G
But walk a little faster and don't look backwards
Dm G
Your feast is to the East, which lies a little past the pasture
Cm G F
When the blackbirds hear tea whistling, they rise and clap
Cm G Ab
And their applause caws the kettle black
Eb Bb Eb
And we won't have none of that!
Cm G F
Move along, Bear; there, there; that's that
Cm Db
Though cast in plaster
Cm G F
Our Ursala's heart beat faster
Cm Ab Cm
Than monkey's ever will
F
But still;
Cm F
They have got to pay the bills
Cm F
Hadn't they?
Cm F
That is what the monkey'd say
Cm F
So, with the courage of a clown, or a cur
Cm F
Or a kite, jerking tight at its tether
Cm F
In her dung-brown gown of fur
Cm F
And her jerkin' of swansdown and leather
Bear would sway on her hind legs;
The organ would grind dregs of song, for the pleasure
Of the children, who'd shriek
Throwing coins at her feet
Then recoiling in terror
Cm F
But for now, just dance, darling
Cm G
C'mon, will you dance, my darling?
Cm Eb
Darling, there's a place for us
Ab Fm
Can we go, before I turn to dust?
Cm Eb
Oh my darling,
Ab Cm
There's a place for us
Oh darling
C'mon, will you dance, my darling?
You keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill
Where you'll ever-after eat your fill
Oh my darling, dear, mine
If you dance
Dance, darling, and I love you still
***(The rest of this sounds like it's just dancing around the C
chord in first and second inversions. So, you could just play
different inversions of Cm Cm Cm Bb repeatedly at this part - or
you could play this suggestion below)***
Cm/C Bb/C Gm/C Bb/C
Deep in the night shone a weak and miserly light
Fm/C Cm/C Ab/C Eb/C
Where the monkey shouldered his lamp
Someone had told him the bear had been wandering
A fair piece away from where they were camped
Someone had told him the bear'd been sneaking away
To the seaside caverns, to bathe
And the thought troubled the monkey
For he was afraid of spelunking down in those caves
Also afraid what the village people would say
If they saw the bear in that state;
Lolling and splashing obscenely
Well, it seemed irrational, really; washing that face
Washing that matted and flea-bit pelt
In some sea-spit-shine, old kelp dripping with brine
But monkey just laughed, and he muttered;
When she comes back, Ursala will be bursting with pride
Till I jump up, saying: you've been rolling in muck!
Saying: you smell of garbage and grime!
But far out, far out, by now, by now
Far out, by now, Bear ploughed
'Cause she would not drown:
First the outside-legs of the bear
Up and fell down, in the water, like knobby garters
Then the outside-arms of the bear
Fell off, as easy as if sloughed from boiled tomatoes
Low'red in a genteel curtsy
Bear shed the mantle of her diluvian shoulders;
And, with a sigh,
She allowed the burden of belly to drop like an apron full of boulders
If you could hold up her threadbare
Coat to the light where it's worn translucent in places
You'd see spots where almost every night of the year
Bear had been mending suspending that baseness
Now her coat drags through the water
Bagging, with a life's-worth of hunger, limitless minnows;
In the magnetic embrace
Balletic and glacial of Bear's insatiable shadow;
Left there! Left there! When Bear left Bear.
Left there! Left there! When Bear stepped clear of Bear!
Cm Ab Cm
Sooner or later you'll bury your teeth
