jwgh | Barstow

The song I was talking about the other day that refers to both Barstow and Esperanto is Barstow by Jay Farrar; the recording I have features David Rawlings's guitar playing and Gillian Welch on backing vocals. I figured out the chords to it today, so I thought I might as well post the thing here.

I am doing this instead of unpacking groceries. OK, groceries call. Bye!

   /G        /G             /G  /G
Anyone caught speaking Esperanto
          /G       /G         /D   /D
Is thought crazy or headed for jail
       /D           /D            /D
There’s peace in the wilds of West Texas
         /D          /C      /G  /G
Where the sun and the sky prevail
Take no notice of the rising waters
Take no notice where rivers run dry
They’ll be digging through the landfills
To find evidence of our great demise

CHORUS:
         /C       /C        /C      /C
There’s a changing pattern before us
       /C             /C          /G   /G
And the past tells the story quite well
      /D      /D         /D      /D
By the time we make it to Barstow
       /D         /C         /G  /G
We’ll be more than halfway to hell
[solo over chorus chords]
Waves of adverts that promise revival
Trinket-ware that batters the brain
The Devil bought the key to Branson
Drives a backhoe and wears a gold chain
Now we’re living in the ending time frame
Bets in Reno are all the human race
Woke up in another test market
With a new headache filter in place

CHORUS:

There’s a changing pattern before us
And the past tells the story quite well
By the time we make it to Barstow
We’ll be more than halfway to hell
[solo over first two lines of chorus]
By the time we make it to Barstow
We’ll be more than halfway to hell