Van der Graaf Generator - A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
Parts I - II from www.hammill.ru Edited by me.
Parts III - VI Transcribed by Cory (coryp23@gmail.com) July 2010
I just wrote out the sax line for The Clot Thickens,
play some power chords if you want, or feel free to complete it for me.
(Eyewitness)
Dm
Still wait ing for my sav-iour, storms tear me limb from limb
C Dm
my fingers feel like seaweed. I'm so far out I'm too far in.
Dm
I am a lonely man, my solitude is true,
C Dm
my eyes have borne stark witness and now my nights are numbered, too.
C Am Bm
I've seen the smiles on dead hands,
Em C Am
the stars shine, but they're not for me.
Dm
I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost...
C Dm
I shine but, shining, dying, I know that I am almost lost.
Dm
On the table lies blank paper and my tower is built on stone;
C Dm
I only have blunt scissors, I only have the bluntest home.
C Am Bm
I've been the witness and the seal of death
Em C Am
lingers in the molten wax that is my head.
Dm
When you see the skeletons
Bb
of sailing-ship spars sinking low
Ab
You'll begin to wonder if the points of all the ancients myths
G Dm
are solemnly directed straight at you...
Dm
No time now for contrition, the time for that's long past,
C Dm
the walls are thin as tissue and if I talk I'll crack the glass.
C Am Bm
So I only think on how it might have been,
Em C Am
locked in silent monologue, in silent scream.
Dm
I am much too tired to speak
Bb
and as the waves crash on the bleak
Ab
stones of the tower I start to freak
G Dm
and find that I am overcome....
(S.H.M.)
G
"Unreal, unreal" ghost helmsmen scream and fall in through the sky,
G
not breaking through my seagull shrieks - no breaks until I die.
Am
The spectres scratch on window-slits,
Bm
the hollowed faces and mindless grins
C Am/B Am Ab G F#
are only intent on destroying what they've lost.
G
I crawl the wall till steepness ends in the vertical fall;
G
my pain has sailed into the sea -no joking hopes at dawn.
Am
White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask,
Bm
lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark
C Am/B Am
and parallel my isolated tower...
G F Em
no paraffin for the flame,
Dm C Bm Am
no harbour left to gain.
(Presence of the night / Kosmos tours)
Am Fmaj7 (or Am/F or Am6 call it what you want)
---------------------------------------|
---1----------------------1------------|
---2----------------------2------------|
---2----------------------2------------|
-0-----------------2----------------0--|
---------------------3----1-----0h1----|
Am [b G] Fmaj7 [e F a]
'Alone, alone' the ghosts all call,
Am [b G] Fmaj7 [e F a]
pinpoint me in the light.
Am [b G] Fmaj7 [e F a]
The only life I feel at all
Am [b G] Fmaj7 [e F a]
is the presence of the night.
Am [b G] Fmaj7 [e F a] repeated
[e F G] Am
[e F G] Am
n.C.
Would you cry if I died?
G Em Dm Em Dm Am Am Em Am Em
-------6-5----6-5---| ------8---7-----8--7--|
-------8-6----8-6---| ------10--8-----10-8--|
-------7-7----7-7---| ------9---9-----9--9--|
--5-----------------| ----------------------|
--------------------| --0-------------------|
--------------------| ----------------------|
G Em Dm Em Dm
Would you catch the final words of mine?
G Em Dm Em Dm
Would you catch my words?
Am Am Em Am Em
I know that there's no time,
Am Am Em Am Em
I know that there's no rhyme,
false signs find me.
(You don't have to play it this way, I just thought it would be fun.)
Am Em/B Am/C Em/D Am/E Em/F
----8---------7---------8--------7----------8--------7------|
------10--------8---------10-------8----------10-------8----|
------------------9------------------9-------------------9--|
-------------------------------0----------------------------|
--0---------------------------------------7--------8--------|
------------7---------8-------------------------------------|
Am Em Am
--8-----8-------7-----7------5--|
----10----10------8-----8----5--|
-------9-----8------9-----9--5--|
-----------------------------7--|
--0-----0--------------------0--|
----------------0-----0---------|
[ Tab from: https://www.guitartabs.cc/tabs/v/van_der_graaf_generator/a_plague_of_lighthouse_keepers_crd.html ]
Am Em Am Em
I don't want to hate, I just want to grow;
Am Em Am
why can't I let me live and be free?
Em Am
...but I die very slowly alone.
Am Em Am Em
I know no more ways, I am so afraid,
Am Em Am
myself won't let me just be myself
Em Am
and so I am completely alone.
Am
The maelstrom of my memory
Bm
is a vampire and it feeds on me;
C C/B Am
now, staggering madly, over the brink I fall.
((Custard's) Last stand)
C# F# F
C# F# F Bb C Bb
Lighthouses might house the key
C# F# F C C# Eb
but can I reach the door?
Bb Bbdim a Ddim C7
-----------------------------------------------------------|
----------6----------------5----------------5--------6--5--|
--------7---7------------6---6------------6---6------4--3--|
------8-------8--------5-------5--------7-------7----6--5--|
----8-----------8----7-----------7----7-----------7--5--3--|
--6----------------6----------------5----------------------|
C# F# F Bb C Bb
I want to walk on the sea
C# F# F C C# Eb
so that I may better find a shore;
Bb Bbdim a F
but how can I ever keep my feet dry?
E7 a a a G F
I scan the horizon,
E7 a a a G F Dm Am/C Bm
I must keep my eyes on all parts of me.
C# F# F Bb C Bb
Looking back on the years
C# F# F C C# Eb
it seems that I have lost my way:
Bb Bbdim a
Like a dog in the night I have run to a manger,
F e
now I am the stranger I stay in.
C# D# e
Ah, well.
C# F# F Bb C Bb
All of the grief I have seen
C# F# F C C# Eb
leaves me chasing solitary peace;
Bb Bbdim a F
But I hold experience in my head.
E7 a a a G F
I'm too close to the light,.
E7 a a a G F
I don't think I see right,
Dm Am/C Bm
for I blind me.
(The clot thickens)
C b C G
Where is the God that guides my hand?
C b C F
How can the hands of others reach me?
C b C G
When will I find what I grope for?
C b C F
Who is going to teach me?
C Bb C Bb
I am me / me are we / we can't see
C Bb b
any way out of here.
C Bb C
Crashing sea, a trophied history:
Bb C b
chance has lost my Guinevere...
a a a b a G# b a G# b a Eb
C C b C G - C C b C F - C C b C G - C C b C F
C Bb C Bb C Bb b
C Bb C Bb C Bb b
a a a b a G# b a G# b a Eb
I don't want to be one wave in the water
but sea will drag me deep:
one more haggard drowned man.
I can see the lemmings coming, but I know I'm just a man.
Do I join or do I founder? Which can is the best I may?
(Land's end (Sineline) / We go now)
Eb Bb Gb Absus
Eb Bb Gb Ab
Oceans drifting sideways, I am pulled into the spell,
[Ab Bb] Bb [Bb C] C Ab7/C Bb7 Eb
I feel you around me, I know you well.
Bb Gb Ab
Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark;
[Ab Bb] Bb [Bb C] C Ab7/C Bb7 Eb
I feel I am drowning - hands stretch in the dark.
Bb Gb Ab [Ab Bb] Bb [Bb C] C
C Bb7/D C7 F
F C Eb Bb
Camps of panoply and majesty, what is Freedom of Choice?
[Bb C] C [C D] D Bb7/D C7 F
Where do I stand in the pageantry, whose is my voice?
C Eb Bb
It doesn't feel so very bad now, I think the end is the start,
[Bb C] C [C D] D Bb7/D C7 F
begin to feel very glad now: All things are a part
Bb7/D C7 F
All things are apart
Bb7/D C7 F
All things are a part.
