Scenes From A Separation – Darren Hanlon

CGFC runs through the entire song except where noted.
Darren plays a little more than these basic chords (example, little hammer on the
D string on the C in the FCG progression) but this works just fine.

Capo 4

We earmarked our August vacation as a fine place to fall apart.
And we heard that a trial separation was a quaint idea for a new start.
Then the city approached like a bandit, my hands shook as they gripped the wheel.
As if I’d always known there’s no place like home to show you the way that you feel.

A rainy afternoon in your bedroom, clothes in two piles on the floor.
One is labeled old couture, the other’s marked alms for the poor.
I’m just loitering trying to look helpful; you offer two corners of the sheet.
We fold over and over and over again and then in the middle we’ll meet.
Now some days I feel like an engagement ring, resting on the ocean floor.
Yet others just like that same Glen Campbell record found in every second hand store.
Now right now I’m watching a drummer, haul his drums into a bar.
And deep down I’m secretly happy, that I play the harmonica.

No I’m not sayin I’m lazy, I just, take more time to digress.
And of more than three ways I empty my days, now that you’re not around to impress.
And of more than three ways I empty my days, now that you’re not around to impress.

Those forming, morning birds.
They don’t do things by thirds.

And your voice sounds just like it’s reading, from a birthday telegram.
It says you’re looking a little older, I say that’s funny because I am.
Last year escaped by the window, and this year’s going for a song.
And the church bells they’re plagiarizing, merrily we roll along.

No we weren’t together forever, but then what the hell does that mean?
One persons lifetime the history of mankind, or the years since I turned seventeen?
One persons lifetime the history of mankind, or the years since you turned seventeen?

Yeah I was light headed unfettered not falsely, claimed to know the dimensions of love.
I was prone to wild exaggeration, sayin things I had no concept of.
Maybe love takes the form of a mountain, with no choice but forever to linger.
Or maybe love lives in a soap bubble, at the mercy of a childs finger.

But each one comes with a little rainbow, designed to hypnotize us.
And I wouldn’t trade one heart-broken minute, for a years worth of dull happiness.

C G F C (x4)

So I built myself another lifetime, oh how quick did the calendar grow?
And right now I’m seven years wiser, than I was twenty-five years ago.

I stop to play with this cat on the footpath, and he’s cleaning his head
with his paw.
And I know that you’re gone so I’m moving on, still I know that you’re worth mourning for.
And I’m feeling just fine but I’m taking my time, cause I know that you’re worth mourning for.

Tabbed for Emma. I’m feeling just fine babe but I know that you’re worth mourning for xoxo.

I believe this matches the recording. Apologies if the lyrics aren’t correct but I
transcribed them by ear.

The song is practically 4 chords the entire way through – listen to the song for timing.

Comments & corrections welcome.

INTRO
C G Dm F x2

VERSE 1
From every shadow they are things that follow you
From your late night dead end job from the old neighborhoods where you grew
There’s a falling satellite (The thought keeps me awake at night)
There’s a chocolate fondue (There’s no nutritional value)
There’s a ground invasion (with complete colour co-ordination)
There’s a sleepover screen (A bed is not a trampoline)
There’s a hymn with a hand on the heart

And all these things will follow you
And all these things will follow you

C G Dm F x4

VERSE 2
Staying locked inside all day is no big deal
But I’m yet to read a travel brochure that could change the way I feel
It’s suffocating in the car (It’s just the way some families are)
It’s a book you’ll get around to read (It’s a pet that you forgot to feed)
It’s an ex-boyfriend you can’t forget (a godparent you never met)

BRIDGE
It’s the fear that began if one single Elvis fan
Could be wrong the other forty nine odd million screaming others also can, aaah

CHORUS
And those things will follow you
And those things will follow you
And the lights will shine right through
So when you open up your eyes they will know you when you do

BREAK
C G Dm F x4

VERSE 3
Did you steal my pen I left it here? (You mean the one behind you ear?)
You’re just a piece of work that’s all (Take me and hang me on the wall)
Away from where the guards linger (You touched the painting with your finger)
And I was placed under gallery arrest (It’s a chance to wear your Sunday best)

BRIDGE
And look sharp on the stand and raise my right shaking hand
And swear everything I say is true on first edition copy of Peter Pan, aaah

CHORUS x2

OUTRO
When you open up your eyes they will know you when they do
When you open up your eyes everyone will know it’s you.

Cast Of Thousands ? Darren Hanlon

This is an awesome tune by a great aussie songwriter and storyteller. Check out a live
if you can get your hands on one it is always absolutely outstanding.

Intro: D D D D

Verse:

We broke up about a year ago
We split amicably of course
But I heard about your accident
When you fell off a horse

[Mm-mm-mm]
I took flowers to the hospital
When in turn the intern said
That he’d help me find the room which held
You and your broken leg
Hidden by your friends and relatives
Gathered round your bed
Ah-ah-ah

Chorus:

You had a cast of thousands of signatures
And charts filled with your fluctuating temperatures
You handed me a pen and pointed just below the knee
I’m glad there’s still a part of you reserved for me

Verse:

Do you remember how we met like laughing children
Or just how clean it ended?
In the darkened ward at night
When blinds are all descended
Now I get a pang of pleasure
Seeing your leg suspended
Shame they can’t cover us in plaster
And in six weeks all is mended
Ah-ah-ah
But I love the smell of hospitals more than just a bit
When I was young I couldn't keep my nose out of the first-aid kit
But when the very thing that brings you here also makes you go
The top floor elevator’s just got one arrow

(Slow tempo right down)

Why so many bloody looks?
I’m in the kitchen with too many cooks

Darren Hanlon – A To Z

(Capo on 3rd fret)

Please read me the phone book
From Abraham to Zuckerman
All addresses and names
Both Christian and sur-

You’ve my full attention
Yes I am the lucky one
To carry each word
From the place i[Am-G]t occurred

In my neighbour's garden
I’ll steal all the flowers
In the town you were born
I will do a handstand

’Cause I’m here
I came down in the last shower
With all the subtleties
Of a marching band

Seated in a lounge waiting to depart
You’d say that we’re off to a flying start

So let’s capture a city bus
We’ll jump from burning buildings
While a circle of firemen
Catch us in a net

We’ll make paper aeroplanes
Of encyclopaedia
From abacus to zebra
The entire set

For those who have matchmaking down to an art
They’d say that we’re off to a broken heart

INTERLUDE
[F-Am] [Am-Dm]



[-]
But there’s never an argument
I don’t need an apology
It’s all half a dozen eggplants
Or six aubergines

Just please sing me the entire
Beatles anthology
From ‘All My Loving’
To ‘Yellow Submarine’
From ‘All My Loving’
To ‘Yellow Submarine’
From ‘All My Loving’
To a yellow submarine

Capo 5th fret ( chords relative to capo )

On a warm night in March on a dark disco floor
I danced up a storm like I?d never before
Every step in the book and then some that weren?t listed
For a song or two I felt nothing else existed

Now if a dream curled at your feet you?d take it home and name it
I?m struggling now to find something to blame it on
Strobing effects or perhaps it was that dress
But my eye was captured by a beautiful actress

Now the minutiae?s still my memory writ large
As she danced nearer me with her coy entourage
She tugged at the scarf round her neck it came loose
She flung it and hung it from the disc jockey?s booth

But before I continue one moments reprieve
I grant you dear audience a chance to leave
For my tale never ends in that it never started
When the house lights came on I?d already departed

No not one word was spoken nor a glance exchanged
When the sun rose next morning the world hadn?t changed
See we only touched elbows is the plain naked truth
And I can?t even back up my story with proof

We only touched elbows, felt our bones clunk together
Then the moment was over in a falling feather
An accident sure but it happened I?ll wrangle
Our elbows did touch our arms at right angles

Now there?s naught the nosey observer could?ve guessed
But the rock and roll drummer inside of my chest
Everyone?s seen her films and I?ll whisper her name
That we only touched elbows is not such a shame

For the world?s getting crowded and I can?t see a lapse
It?s not about leaving spaces but filling the gaps
We?re all bumping and knocking strangers all the time
Sometimes we don?t notice, mostly we don?t mind

A foot brushes your ankle on a peak hour bus
Someone?s hand on the small of your back as they pass
A shopkeepers fingers while handing you change
Can lightly brush yours without feeling too strange

But why I felt so alive I can?t quite determine
There could be a word to explain it in German
Some take others home waking up to regret it
We only touched elbows and I?ll never forget it

Now the innocent DJ still spins his black moons
And keeps us all moving with his faithful tunes
And the lights nod in synch, they?re mechanically powered
We only touched elbows and I still haven?t

Darren Hanlon – Butterfly Bones
Tabbed by Kate
Tuning: Standard
Capo on 5th

When one year ends and another begins and the sky is a shower of sparks
With your skinny girls arms with the hairs on their ends like exclamation marks
Well I admit I was scared, I felt unprepared if I need you tell me where you’ll be
You said “It’s not surprising, just look to the horizon, it’s the circle in the middle is me”

A week in the hospital, always sick when you were little, you were brittle like butterfly bones
I wish I had been there to run a comb through your hair – it always smelt like smoke and pine cones
But then the devil shot through, you got stronger as you grew but they treat you like you’re never
the same
You filled your one good lung and bit down hard on your tongue just to keep yourself from going
insane

(Not sure about this part…)
Oh Oh Oh
Oh

(Interlude, the verses chords, Darren does much finger picking here in a guitar solo)




(Middle 8)
And the rides keep on turning
And our lives insist on turning
And my mind it keeps on learning
But I can smell something burning mmm

Now in a minute or less I tried to confess every single thing I’ve learnt so far
In a skirt that you’d stolen as the road was unrolling and unreelin’ ‘neath the wheels of the car
No I haven’t been drinking, I don’t know what I was thinking but it really don’t mean a thing
She said “do me a favour if you wanna be my saviour then you’re gonna have to wait ‘til the spring”
She said “do me a favour if you wanna be my saviour then you’re gonna have to learn how to sing”

Thanks, Justin, for getting me hooked on Darren Hanlon!
Enjoy! 🙂

Darren Hanlon – Couch Surfing

Well I haven’t paid rent in a month or more
I’m couch surfing
And I don’t have a key cause I don’t have a door
I’m couch surfing
I’m not taking calls
I’m between houses

Of my material possessions I’ve lost track
I didn’t need them
Everything I need fits in my backpack
I call it freedom
A pair of jeans some shirts and a guitar lead
A toothbrush, socks and a paperback reader
All the rest is what’s hanging off of me

And I’m not answering questions
I’m between houses

Outside the night is cold and stormy
And you blew up the air mattress for me
We’ll talk all night like an open book
And I’ll sleep on every breath you took
Before you leave I’ll sneak a look up at you

But there’s an old saying that could bare retelling
When you’re couch surfing:
’the guest should leave before the fish starts smelling’
When your couch surfing
It’s romantically existential
To reduce your life to the bare essential
All that which is inconsequential guides me

But this whole theory really depends
On weather or not you’ve got good friends
And all this weightlessness the philosopher preach
Reduces you to societies leach
But tonight i’ve landed on my feet
I’m still one friend away from the bum on the street
And i’ve used up all my good will vouchers
On every single friend with couches
It won’t be long before they’ll ask me to leave
It’s time i cut myself some keys
Give me a pen i'll sign a lease and go get me a home

Thats the whole song. HY.

(1):
In the land of the eternal night time, there?s a single lamppost on a far off hill, the
people go to see if their own shadows grow out of their feet and are with them
still
(2):
The trees outside tap dance in our windows while our ancestors all roll in their
graves, she throws out four of her old dresses for every one she saves
(3):
And she says these old things look better in the window I think id much rather
imagine them on someone new
Bridge

e—————————————————–|
B—————————————————–|
G–3-3-3-4-6—6-8-9-8-6——————————|
D—————————————————–|
A—————————————————–|
E–2-2-2-4-5—5-7-9-7-5——————————|

(1)You?d think the two things could just fit together you think wanting for
nothing is not a crime

I feel like whistling but I cant stop smiling, its impossible to do them both at the same time

(2)So lets take the great novels and tear out their last pages, and then read each
other?s faces like they?re written in Braille,

turn all the air that hangs around us to the wind in our sails

(1) And go x 4
Pretty simplified, intended for one person playing.