Birds Without Wings - by David Gray
E|-----------------------------------|
from the album A Century Ends (Caroline Records, 1993)
Transcribed by Tower Kountze

David Gray is an incredible songwriter with a great voice.  He has three
CDs out,
but for some reason no one knows him.  I would love to see more of his
work
transcribed here, especially his more difficult stuff.

It's basically C and G with a slight variation on G (G*), and an A
thrown in toward the end.
(note: G* is just G played with your finger taken off the A string)

The Cords are C, G, G*, except for one part shown below, where an
A is thrown in when "birds without wings" is repeated

Wishing that something would happen
a change in this place
'cause I'm tearing off the fancy wrapping
find an empty package

Take for a while your trumpet from your lip
loosen your hold, loosen your grip
on your old ways that have fallen out of step
in a changing time
hoist a new flag
hoist a new flag

Angry sun burn down
judging us all
guilty of neglect and disrespect
and thinking small
And death by boredom
and death by greed
if we can't stop taking
more than we need

Across the fractured the landscape
I see the same things
tired ideas
birds without wings

[Change in chords: A, C, G]
Birds without wings
birds without wings

But these are just thoughts
on lackluster times
and I've no interest
in excuses you can find

Like you've had a hard day
now you're too tired to care
now you're too tired to care
you've had a hard day

Well across the fractured landscape
I see the same things
tired ideas, broken values
many with the notion
that to share is to lose
a hollow people bound by a lack
of imagination and too much looking back
without the courage
to give a new thing a chance
grounded by this ignorance

[Change in chords: D, Am]
When the cat comes
we're just
[A, C, G]
birds without wings