home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- #----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
- #This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
- #song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
- #------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
-
- JOHN DOE NO. 24 (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
- ---------------------------------------
-
- This song is in the key of E, but Mary Chapin plays it in G with a
- capo at the 9th fret, in open D tuning (DADF#AD). But the highest
- string is never used, so you don't have to tune that one down; since
- high E's often break, you may as well tune to DADF#AE.
-
- The guitar part repeats one pattern through the entire song, with some
- slight variations. This tablature is for the first four measures of
- the song, and it shows two ways to play the end of the pattern; through
- most of the song, she uses the second way, especially while she's
- singing. (Note that the "131" in the tab is a hammer-on followed by a
- pull-off, and the "13" is a hammer-on from 1 to 3, not thirteen!)
-
- D ----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
- A ------0---------|----------------|------0---------|----------------|
- F# 1-------1-----1-|------1-131---0-|1-------1-----1-|------1-13----0-|
- D ----0-------0---|----0-------0---|----0-------0---|----0-------0---|
- A --2-------3-----|--3-------------|--2-------3-----|--3-------0-----|
- D 0-------2-------|0-------0-------|0-------2-------|0-------0-------|
- ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ . ^ .
-
- MCC doesn't use her thumb to fret the low E (she uses her middle finger),
- but you can use your thumb if it's easier that way. Notice that I didn't
- put chord names; that's because they don't really matter. I guess you
- could say the chords are: G(9), C(9)/E, Gsus4/D, D(4).
-
-
- LYRICS (each line is two measures):
-
- I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945
- In Jacksonville, Illinois
- When asked what my name was there came no reply
- They said I was a deaf and sightless half-wit boy
- But Louis was my name, though I could not say it
- I was born and raised in New Orleans
- My spirit was wild, so I let the river take it
- On a barge and a prayer upstream
-
- Well they searched for a mother and they searched for a father
- And they searched till they searched no more
- The doctors put to rest their scientific tests
- And they named me "John Doe No. 24"
- And they all shook their heads in pity
- For a world so silent and dark
- Well there's no doubt that life's a mystery
- But so too is the human heart
-
- And it was my heart's own perfume when the crepe jasmine bloomed
- On St. Charles Avenue
- Though I couldn't hear the bells of the streetcars coming
- By toeing the track I knew
- And if I were an old man returning
- With my satchel and porkpie hat
- I'd hit every jazz joint on Bourbon
- And I'd hit everyone on Basin after that
-
- [sixteen-bar saxophone solo]
-
- The years kept passing as they passed me around
- From one state ward to another
- Like I was an orphan shoe from the lost and found
- Always missing the other
- And they gave me a harp last Christmas
- And all the nurses took a dance
- But lately I've been growing listless
- I've been dreaming again of the past
-
- I'm wandering down to the banks of the great Big Muddy
- Where the shotgun houses stand
- I am seven years old and I feel my dad
- Reach out for my hand
- While I drew breath no one missed me
- So they won't on the day that I cease
- Put a sprig of crepe jasmine with me
- To remind me of New Orleans
-
- I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945
- In Jacksonville, Illinois
- [pause on A note (open 2nd string)]
-
- [repeat and fade with saxophone solo]
-
-
- - Adam Schneider, schneider@pobox.com
-