This Building

Transpose
Year: 1996
Album: Grand Necropolitan

INTRO
Abmaj7 
VERSE 1
Abmaj7 
The greying tower
Abmaj7 
Lines massive, baggy-eye windows
Abmaj7 
Streets of a slum
Abmaj7 
Point to it, dumbly, like arrows
 
Abmaj7 
It speaks of futures
Abmaj7 
Lived out in fear with death close at hand
Abmaj7 
Overgrowth 
 
neutered
Abmaj7 
A warning, blatant, the skyline jammed
CHORUS 1
 
It’s  
Cm9 
crippled and  
Abadd9/A# 
blind 
 
 
Fm7 
 
But it’s  
Cm9 
act is a  
Abadd9/A# 
mime 
 
 
Fm7 
 
Which means:  
Gm/C 
“Look here  
Eb 
first
Edim 
This building hates us”
VERSE 2
Abmaj7 
The timid tones
Abmaj7 
Fake chat and ditties, rotating
Abmaj7 
Down windy halls
Abmaj7 
Cracked sheeting screeches as breath goes in
 
Abmaj7 
Gases of food
Abmaj7 
(Past, present, absent and formerly)
Abmaj7 
Seep, cell to cell
Abmaj7 
Down stairwell, needle-lined, normally
CHORUS 2
 
The  
Cm9 
tail-lights of  
Abadd9/A# 
Earth 
 
 
Fm7 
 
Seem  
Cm9 
faint from this  
Abadd9/A# 
perch 
 
 
Fm7 
 
As we  
Gm/C 
live out this  
Eb 
curse
Edim 
This building hates us
INTERLUDE
Gm/G# 
 
Bdim/G# 

The crew of a tiny camcorder crowds around one doorway where a resident is pointing at his leg. Buried in here is the nozzle of a pressurised paint gun. He says, “It’s never coming out! I am transformed. I have created a new being out of old.”

 
Dm 
I’ve been quite a Don Juan
Dm 
Led man and woman on
Dm 
My heyday, downed with a  
Gm 
belch 
 
 
C# 
 
C 
 
Dm 
I gave my cash to pinstripe thieves
Dm 
And my partners in delinquency
Dm 
All of them as damaged as my  
Gm 
self 
 
 
C# 
 
C 
 
Gm/G# 
 
Bdim/G# 
 
Gm/G# 
 
Bdim/G# 
 
Dm 
Like a shaman sent from hell
 
I  
Dm 
led the dance, I chanted spells
 
And  
Dm 
down on all disaster did  
Gm 
rain 
 
 
C# 
 
C 
 
Oh but  
Dm 
now they beat upon my door
 
I say  
Dm 
go where there is no cure
 
But  
Dm 
back they come, every single  
Gm 
day 
 
 
C# 
 
C 
VERSE 3
Abmaj7 
 
Abmaj7 
No rite will mark
Abmaj7 
Birth, growing, pairing, spawning, death
Abmaj7 
Nor lying down
Abmaj7 
Amid the grime of years will stone suggest
 
Abmaj7 
Hold tight, hold tight
Abmaj7 
To your digital twist and scrape
Abmaj7 
They got you good
Abmaj7 
So now let’s see you try going straight
OUTRO/FADE
Abmaj7 
 
Abmaj7 
Oh no don’t be like that or the  
Eb/G# 
bossman won’t in
Eb/G 
vite us back
Abmaj7 
Oh no don’t be like that or the  
Eb/G# 
impresari
Eb/G 
o won’t clap
Abmaj7 
Watch them dance on gallows trees,  
Eb/G# 
burn the birdies,  
Eb/G 
burst the bees
Abmaj7 
Feed her whisky ’til she’s senile,  
Eb/G# 
ask if you can  
Eb/G 
buy a missile
Abmaj7 
Oh no don’t be like that or the  
Eb/G# 
bossman won’t in
Eb/G 
vite us back
Abmaj7 
Oh please watch my hat,  
Eb/G# 
paint my walls and  
Eb/G 
windows 
 
black