The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #13408   Message #1082351
Posted By: Rich from Milwaukee
30-Dec-03 - 10:45 AM
Thread Name: Lyr/Chords Req: Elizabeth Dark (Michael Smith)
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: BALLAD OF ELIZABETH DARK (M Smith)
I don't know if anyone is still interested but I've recently learned this song so will add my chords to Art's lyrics (with a few of my edits).

This is the version from Michael's new live CD "Such Things Are Finely Done". To line up the chords with the lyrics, copy the text into notepad or a word processing app and use a fixed width font like courier.

Intro:

D . . . / Dsus . . . / A/D . . . / D . . A/D /
G . . . / A6 . . A / D . G . / A6 . . .    /
                                     (Let me)

       / D                     / Bm                     / Em7             /
Let me sing you the ballad of Elizabeth Dark--I've been workin' on it since the time
       / A6                        /                         A/G / D      .    G/B A / G . A6    /
We hung out at this coffeehouse in Rogers Park like two kids at a Five and Dime,

She would read Dostoievsky by the yellow moon that hung like an orange in the trees,
While I worked on the tune to the mystery song of Elizabeth Dark and me.

This was back in the days of the folk music craze---Lenny and poetry and jazz,
Cats and Chicks snappin' their fingers to Lord Buckley doin' "THE NAZZ",
Kijrkigard, Ginsberg, Sartre and free love--parties to cover the rent,
We all wanted to be existentialists---none of us knew what the hell it meant.

(refrain)
    / D                / A/D      / G                      /
Now I take the "El" to Loyola and I walk along the Sheridan sand,
         / Em7                        / A6          / D             G   / Em . A . /
Where the waves are breakin' over the jetty and the wind is like an icy hand,
/ D                / D/G             / G/B                     / Gm/Bb
Fyodor says that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime,
/ D       G    / Em    A6         / (back to intro)
Maybe I'll see Elizabeth D. one more time.

Her hair was long and flowing--a river of Zen down her back,
We had spaghetti with Ferlinghetti and wine with Jack Kerouac,
Things were real cool--one day I came home from school and Elizabeth Dark wasn't there,
No river of raven Zen hair--no Dark at the top of the stairs.

(refrain) Now I take the "El" to Loyola and I walk along the Sheridan sand,
Where the waves are breaking over the jetty--where the wind is like an icy hand,
Fyodor says that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime,
Maybe I'll see Elizabeth D. one more time.

Sometimes I take out my old bongos---reminisce about makin' the scene,
Read my Tarot tell my fortune from grounds from a beat up espresso machine,
I'm a beatnik lost in the future like a model-T Ford out in space,
Still as in love with Elizabeth Dark as the first time I saw her face.

Now I take the "El" to Loyola and I walk along the Sheridan sand,
Where the waves are breakin' over the jetty---where the wind is like an icy hand,
Theodore says that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime,
/D    .    G    /Em . A6 .      / Bm      / E
Maybe I'll see Elizabeth D. one more time.
          / Em          / A6 (back to intro)
Maybe I'll see Elizabeth D. one more time.