Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)

Subject: Chord Req: joni mitchell's Magdalene laundries
From: widowmaker
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 03:24 AM

Just trying to find the chords to this sad poignant song if any one can help?

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES (Joni Mitchell
From: mandotim
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 04:18 AM

Lyrics and chords below; I worked the chords out from the Christy Moore version, which is easier to work out due to the standard tuning. There is a little riff between the G and Em where you play the A note on the G string within the G chord briefly before the chord shift. The chord is Asus2 I think.

  G
  I was an unmarried girl
  Em
  I'd just turned twenty-seven
            G
  When they sent me to the sisters
                  Em
  For the way men looked at me
  C
  Branded as a jezebel
  Em
  I knew I was not bound for Heaven
         C
  I'd be cast in shame
           D          Em
  Into the Magdalene laundries
  G 
  Most girls come here pregnant
  Em
  Some by their own fathers
  G
  Bridget got that belly
          Em
  By her parish priest
  C
  We're trying to get things white as snow
  Em
  All of us woe-begotten-daughters
          C
  In the streaming stains
         D          Em
  Of the Magdalene laundries
  C
  Prostitutes and destitutes
       Em
  And temptresses like me--
  C
  Fallen women--
                  Em
  Sentenced into dreamless drudgery ...
  C
  Why do they call this heartless place
  Em
  Our Lady of Charity?
     C       Em
  Oh charity!
  G
  These bloodless brides of Jesus
   Em                    
  If they had just once glimpsed their groom
  G
  Then they'd know, and they'd drop the stones
  Em
  Concealed behind their rosaries
  C
  They wilt the grass they walk upon
  Em
  They leech the light out of a room
                 C                  D
  They'd like to drive us down the drain
                    Em
  At the Magdalene laundries
  G
  Peg O'Connell died today
            Em
  She was a cheeky girl
  A flirt
  They just stuffed her in a hole!
  G                                        Em
  Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring!
  C
  One day I'm going to die here too
              Em
  And they'll plant me in the dirt
       C
  Like some lame bulb
                             Em
  That never blooms come any spring
           C
  Not any spring
              Em
  No, not any spring
           C       Em
  Not any spring

Hope this helps. My wife plays this on tenor guitar and sings it. Really good song.
Tim

Subject: RE: Chord Req: joni mitchell's Magdalene laundries
From: mandotim
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 04:30 AM

Some of the chord spacings have come out oddly; you'll need to listen for the chord changes. Second part of the bridge should be;
C
They wilt the grass they walk upon
               Em
They leech the light out of a room
               C                  D
They'd like to drive us down the drain
                  Em
At the Magdalene laundries

Subject: RE: Chord Req: joni mitchell's Magdalene laundries
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 04:45 AM

I added Preformat <pre> </pre> tags to standardize the spacing - is it right now?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Chord Req: joni mitchell's Magdalene laundries
From: mandotim
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 06:10 AM

Thanks Joe!
Tim

Subject: RE: Chord Req: joni mitchell's Magdalene laundries
From: GUEST,lillyruben
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 05:00 AM

Christy moore does a nice version you can catch it on youtube

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: GUEST,Tacoma Papoose Guitar
Date: 28 Jun 13 - 11:56 AM

I play this on a A-tuned; Tacoma Papoose Guitar; It give it a very folk/Appalachian sound with a adaptation to the Mountain Dulcimer. Since that culture has deep "old Country Irish" roots, this is a song their culture adapts well to their feeling of being the underdogs in life.

They love their "Jesus" yet they sometimes do not understand their fate of being in the under-dog of American culture.

Go papoose, and you'll never turn it loose!! LOL May have to go to Ebay to find one. Tacoma was bought out by Fender, and no longer make this beautiful folk/tenor guitar.

CarolanaSongs.com

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 09:48 AM

Joni doesn't mince words, does she? She had the misfortune to be born into a society where money is the social arbiter, not love...and it's a big financial problem when a baby is born to an unwed mother...specially a very young unwed mother with little or no cash.

This was not the case in Hawaii, for example, before the white explorers arrived and brought "civilization". If a girl got pregnant there, everyone celebrated and they had a big party to greet the new child when it was born. Money didn't even enter the picture. There was no money. And it didn't particularly matter who the father was or whether the girl was married...the baby was welcomed and got full support from all the girl's relatives. No shame! They knew something we don't.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 29 Jun 13 - 01:52 PM

According to some bright spark on Youtube her guitar is tuned BF#BEAE....

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 06:34 AM

LH, the Magdalene institutions were basically about "shame", not about money. More precisely: fighting sexual promiscuity using all means short of murder ("honour killing"). Wealthy relatives were put under considerable social pressure to repudiate the "fallen girl" and to withdraw financial support.

Not only unmarried mothers, but also their children were treated like "bastards", as an additional deterrent for other women.

The reasons for this norm do have a material (financial) component, but are more complex, and deeply rooted in societies based on genetic parentship. (Other models, e.g. avunculate, are successful only in small communities, and have considerable drawbacks as well.)

Fortunately, the power of that deterrence concept has now ceased in most western societies, not necessarily because we have become more merciful, but because we found we need the babies. With DNA tests at hand, the genetic father can be identified and reminded of his responsibility.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 11:27 AM

LH, I fail to see that ostracism and scorn, and even death, as the lot of the "fallen" woman, was primarily money-based. The practice is deeply rooted in many societies, as Griska states.

In European societies, a pregnant unmarried woman, or even one suspected of having sex outside of wedlock, was not only ostracized but often deprived of any but the meagerest existence, and in eastern Europe occasionally was even stoned by her peers.

Condemnation leading to ostracism by church and society was common where I was raised, back before WW2 and the upheavals in society that followed.

I also remember that the man suffered along with the woman, through stringent application of the Mann Act (USA). I remember one couple who came to our door seeking aid to fight against incarceration for violation of the Act.

The social practices of Polynesian society have nothing to do with those of "Western" society. Not simple there either, crossing hierarchical boundaries in sex could lead to death.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: breezy
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 03:13 PM

so how do you rate the film folks ?

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 05:27 PM

breezy, if you mean me and the film The Magdalene Sisters (of 2002, not directly related to JM's song) - I never saw it. But if the point of your question is whether I approve of any of those practices in any way, the answer is of course no. And I know many examples of real persons who, like the fictitious Mother Superior, turn their own personal frustrations into fierce hatred of "public enemies" - preferably of whole groups -, making the haters look justified and like defenders of the public good, e.g. their religion.

It is of course easy for us to condemn them if we do not disapprove of their victims. In other cases it becomes much more complicated. For an encyclopedia of current "public enemies", just read Mudcat BS.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Magdalene Laundries (Joni Mitchell)
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 04 Jul 13 - 04:12 AM

It wasn't necessarily 'fighting sexual promiscuity' though. Being raped was enough to put a girl into the clutches of the M(agdalene)S(isters), as was being somewhat precocious. In other words, as so often it was always the woman's fault even when she was actually the victim. Also, and this comes out in interviews with victims of the MS-system which can be found on Youtube, just having an unhappy home situation could find the MS being 'helpful' and offering to take a girl in so that she could concentrate on her schooling - which then however only consisted of hard graft in the laundry.

As to the film- very intense, very moving and above all shocking.