This strange engine

	  		            Dm                                   F                          Dm        F 
There was a boy who came into this world at the hands of a holy woman in a holy place 
          Dm                            F                               Dm            F 
He wore a red coat and walked a bulldog,  saw them reflected in the mirror of the lakes 
             Dm                                   F 
Lived in the shadow of the mountains with the smells of disinfectant 
      Dm                                           F 
Dusty old leather and the polished wood of his bed 
               Dm                              F 
No more than a baby feeding swans on the river,  holding the hands of his mother 
        C                            G     F  C  G 
And the wax paper bag of yesterday's bread 

        F                                   C G                                      F 
And his father on the other side of the world on the ship's railings and some far away tide 
           C                         G                         F           C 
With the silent dry tear of home thoughts from abroad in his far away eyes 
       G          F  (NC)  F  Cm  Eb  Bb 
In his far away eyes 

F                             Cm           Eb                         Bb 
  The smell of the wax on the wooden floor,   mixture of polish and soap 
F                             Cm      Eb                      Bb 
  No children to fear or to play with,   rows of empty hooks for the coats 
   F                      Cm               Eb                                    Bb 
An upright piano and the boys in the choir    still remind him of just before he was born 
F                           Cm               Eb                           Bb 
  Remind him of just before he was breathing,   strange misty visions of God 
F                        Cm     Eb                   Bb 
  Turn the cities into families,   into villages of souls 
F                       Cm                   Eb                        Bb 
  Hovering in the air while they're sleeping,   with their houses invisible 
F                        Cm          Eb            (NC) 
  Send to me the ghosts of Christmas,   whispering,     "You're the only one" 

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  And ever since I was a boy, I never felt that I belonged 
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Like everything they did to me was an experiment   to see 
                             1                                 1 
How I would cope with the illusion, in which direction would I jump 
                       1                         1 
Would I do it all the same as the actors in the game 
                           Bb                                   F 
Or would I spit it back at them and not get caught up in their rules 
                         Bb                   F 
And live according to my own and not be used, not be used 
                        Eb                             Bb 
To find the fundamental truths, it was gonna take some time 
                             Ab                               F# 
Thirty-five summers down the line, the wisdom of each passing year 
                          Ab                              F 
Seems to serve only to confuse, seems to serve only to confuse 

Eb  Bb  Fm  F#maj7  Ab  F  Eb  Bb  Ab  F#maj7  Ab  1  1  1  1  1  1  Fm  Eb  Bb  Fm  F#maj7  Ab 

(NC)  F#maj7  Ab  Gm  Cm  Dm  F 

Gm                       Cm                Dm                 F 
   Daddycame out of the navy and took us away to his dirty grey home town 
Gm                      Cm                     Dm                       F 
   And he worked down a coal mine for National Service so that he could be around 
Gm             Cm             Dm                        F                 Gm         Cm  Dm  F 
   There was a magical purple    in the chrome of the exhaust of his Triumph motor bike 
                Gm            Cm                            Dm     F   Gm     Cm  Dm 
And a warmth of oil and metal    and the thrill of the hard corner holding tight 

            Gm Cm                   Dm          F 
From the horizon came home from the Navy to the mine 
Gm             Cm        Dm     F 
   From the horizon to buried alive 
     Gm         Cm      Dm 
Took his dream underground 
           F           Gm      Cm  Dm   F 
Buried his treasure in his faraway eyes 

Dm                    C                       F             G               Dm     C  F  G 
   And one day as the boy lay sleeping in the sunshine of a half-remembered afternoon 
Dm                            C                  F                 G 
   A cloud of bees with no particular aim and no brain found the boy 
                 Dm         C  F  G 
Decided that his time had come 
Dm                       C   F                     G            Dm 
   Came down out of the sky, stung him in the face   again and again 
              C                   F              G 
Blue pain, screaming like baptism,  intravenous, Jesus 
              Dm  C                      F       G 
Like being chosen   from something with no brain,  blue pain 
Dm                 C    F                 G    Dm  C  F  G  Dm  C  F  G  Dm  C  F  G  Dm  C  F  G 
   It's happening again,  it's happening again 

Am  Dm  Em  G  Am  Dm  Em  G  Am  Dm  Em  G  Dm  Am  G  F  Am  F  Am  Em  C  D  Em  C  D 

Em            C               D 
   Oh, Mummy, Daddy, will you sit a while with me? 
Em            C               D 
   Oh, Mummy, Daddy, will you jog my memory? 
        Em               C       D 
Tell me    tall tales of Montego Bay, Table Mountain, flying fish 
Em        C              D               Em     C    D 
   Banana spiders, pots of paint and the sun on the Equator 
             Em       C              D 
Setting like an ember thrown to deep water 
  Em      C       D 
From crimson to black 
Em         C  D 
But coming back tomorrow 

Em  D           Em D  Em  D  Cmaj7  D  Em  D  Em  D  Em  D  Cmaj7  D 
      On the horizon 

Em  D  Em  D  Em  D  Cmaj7  D  Em  D  Em  D  Em  D  Cmaj7  D 

Em          C    D  Em         C                      D 
   The blue pain    fades to a point where it doesn't fade 
   Em  C  D  Em   C  D 
It stayed       blue 
    Em          C        D             Em    C    D 
And stirred his red coat heart to this    strange engine 
Em     C  D       E   A       G   D 
This love,  this love,  this love 
          E          A       G               D 
This inconvenient, blind blood-diamond, this puzzle 
      E           A       G               D                    E 
This love, this blind blood-diamond, this puzzle, I don't understand 
       A      G           D        E          A    G 
That knows no faith and tries and fails and tries again 
       D       E        A            G       D         E 
Stares at the sea, the night's dark deep for one last time 
      A          G         D        E 
And bleeds and bleeds and dies for you 
     A       G       D       E     A     
And lies and is to blame and is ashamed 
       G        D        E 
And is not the same and is true 
 A        G        D        E        A        G        D        E 
Is true, is true, is true, is true, is true, is true, is true, is true