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.

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! 🙂