Sapokanikan - Joanna Newsom

Sapokanikan

View chords used in this chart
(verse 1)
 
C D F
The cause is Ozymandian
 
C D F
The map of Sapokanikan
 
C G
Is sanded and bevelled
 
Bb F
The land lorn and levelled
 
Am D# Dm D#
By some unrecorded and powerful hand
 
(verse 2)
 
C D F
Which plays along the monument
 
C D F
And drums upon a plastic bag
 
C G Bb F
The brave-men-and-women-so-dear-to-God-
 
Am D# Dm D#
And-famous-to-all-of-the-ages rag
 
[Refrão]
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
Sang: Do you love me?
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
Will you remember?
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
The snow falls above me
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
The renderer renders:
 
F D# Gm
The event is in the hand of God
 
(verse 3)
 
C D F
Beneath a patch of grass, her
 
C D F
Bones the old Dutch master hid
 
C G
While elsewhere Tobias
 
Bb F
And the angel disguise
 
Am D# Dm D#
What the scholars surmise was a mother and kid
 
(verse 4)
 
C D F
Interred with other daughters
 
C D F
In dirt in other potters' fields
 
C G
Above them, parades
 
Bb F
Mark the passing of days
 
Am D# Dm D#
Through parks where pale colonnades arch in marble and steel
 
[Refrão]
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
Where all of the twenty-thousand attending your footfall
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
And the causes they died for are lost in the idling bird calls
 
Bb Gm
And the records they left are cryptic at best
 
D# Bb
Lost in obsolescence
 
Bb Gm
The text will not yield, nor x-ray reveal
 
D# Bb
With any fluorescence
 
F D# Gm G#
Where the hand of the master begins and ends
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
I fell, I tried to do well but I won't be
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
Will you tell the one that I love to remember and hold me
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
I call and call for the doctor
 
Bb Gm D# Bb
But the snow swallows me whole with ol' Florry Walker
 
F D# Gm
And the event lives only in print
 
(Outro)
 
C#
He said:
 
Bb
"It's alright"
 
C
And "It's all over now"
 
Am Dm
And boarded the plane
 
Bb
His belt unfastened
 
C Am Dm
The boy was known to show unusual daring
 
Bb
And, called a "boy"
 
C Am Dm
This alderman, confounding Tammany Hall
 
Bb C Am Dm
In whose employ King Tamanend himself preceeded Johnâ??s fall
 
Bb
So we all raise a standard
 
C Am Dm
To which the wise and honest soul may repair
 
Bb
To which a hunter
 
C Am Dm
A hundred years from now, may look and despair
 
Bb
And see with wonder
 
C Am Dm
The tributes we have left to rust in the parks
 
Bb
Swearing that our hair stood on end
 
C Am Dm
To see John Purroy Mitchel depart
 
Bb C Am Dm
For the Western front where our work might count
 
Bb C Am Dm
O mercy! O God!
 
Bb C Am Dm
Go out, await the hunter to decipher the stone
 
Bb C Am Dm Bb C Am Dm Bb C Am Dm
And what lies under the city is gone
 
Bb C Am Dm
Look and despair
 
Bb C Am Dm
Look and despair
 
Bb C Am Dm (Fade out)

How to play Sapokanikan

Use the controls above to change the key and text size. Follow the highlighted chords while listening, then practice each section slowly before playing at the original tempo.

What is the starting chord?

The first identified chord is C. You can transpose without leaving the page.

Can I play it on guitar or keyboard?

Yes. The chord progression works on acoustic guitar, electric guitar and keyboard. Adapt the voicings to your instrument and level.

More chords by Joanna Newsom

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