Radium Girls Curie Eleison

Bent to help the boys entrenched stave off those dark shadows [Verse 1] Em Cmaj7 Day-by-day they all were tasked to paint two hundred dials B7 Em Em/F# Em/G With brushes made of camel hair and radium dust in vials Em Cmaj7 The numbers on the clocks were painted dainty, slim, and slight B7 Em Em/F# Em/G So, the girls were taught to use their lips to point the bristles tight [Verse 2] Am Em The taste was a little foul, but no one really seemed to mind B7 Em Em/F# Em/G The pay was more than three times what a girl back then could find Am G Radium was championed a new found fount of youth Am F# B7 And the few who knew the dangers kept the public from the truth [Verse 3] Em Cmaj7 For a time, each painter prospered, though the work they did was tough, B7 Em Em/F# Em/G And were delighted when they'd clock out covered in the magic stuff Em Cmaj7 They'd decorate their drabbest dresses, paint skin so they'd sparkle — B7 Em Em/F# Em/G No earthly sight quite like a glowing angel in the darkness [Chorus] F Em Curie Eleison F B7 Curie [Verse 4] Em Cmaj7 Even lights that shine the brightest will eventually dim B7 Em Em/F# Em/G But you never do expect it just as someone's life begins Em Cmaj7 As each timepiece passed through nimble fingers, painters dreamed and planned B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Though they had, in fact, so very little time left on their hands [Verse 5] Am Em Soon these young girls ached as if they'd aged for eighty-years B7 Em Em/F# Em/G And radiating pain turned into radiating fear Am G Doctors did their best to treat an unknown malady Am F# B7 But no remedy could keep those bodies from unraveling [Verse 6] Em Cmaj7 So, aching turned to limping, and sore mouths began to bleed B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Then jaws began to break and smiles gave way to crumbling teeth Em Cmaj7 Families became buried beneath doctor bills and loans B7 Em Em/F# Em/G And grief, like radium, began to settle in their bones [Chorus] F Em Curie Eleison F B7 Curie [Verse 7] Em Cmaj7 To have so many sick at once seemed no coincidence B7 Em Em/F# Em/G But the company, confronted, had maintained its innocence Em Cmaj7 Yet they'd secretly received results that told a different story B7 Em Em/F# Em/G And they knew, despite their lies, that they were liable for the suffering [Verse 8] Am Em Those who had enlisted ladies to leave luminescent marks B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Were now working overtime to keep them in the dark Am G Not a single protocol was changed at all, though there was danger Am F# B7 And ailing workers - failing fast - were easily exchanged for [Verse 9] Em Cmaj7 Healthy, younger women unsuspecting and naive B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Who craved to carve their own piece of The Great American Dream Em Cmaj7 Nothing pierced those stone hearts fortified by corporate greed B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Even when the women's own hearts, one-by-one, had ceased to beat [Chorus] F Em Curie Eleison F B7 Curie [Interlude] E Cmaj7 B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Em Cmaj7 B7 Em Em/F# Em [Verse 10] Em Cmaj7 I wish that I could tell you that somebody'd found a cure B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Or that when the court case first came round, the crime was answered for Em Cmaj7 These women walked among the living having one foot in the grave B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Still they used what fight that they had left so others could be saved [Verse 11] Am Em To this day no one can say how many lives were lost B7 Em Em/F# Em/G Had they been sooner taken seriously it might have cut the cost Am G You may claim women have been long-since elevated in this world— Am F# B7 But how can that be? Our ashes still speak louder than our words...