Disclaimer: The following tab is intended for private enjoyment and educational purposes and should not be read as an encouragement for members of the general public to play the song live. The lyrics and music of "Use Me While You Can" are the intellectual property of Bruce Cockburn, his management, and record companies, etc,.
Use Me While You Can is transcribed from the Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu album.
Double drop D tuning (low DADGBD high) Chords: D9 000210 D9sus 000010 D5 000230 C+9 x32010 G/B x20030 G+9 xx0200 Am9 x02410 Em+9 224000 (use index finger to fret lowest two strings) F6/9 330010 h hammer-on p pull-off
D9 |---------------------------------------------------------------- |---------------------------------------------------------------- |-----0h2----0--------------------------------------------------- |--0h3--------3p0--0h3--0h3--0h3--0h3---etc---------------------- |---------------------------------------------------------------- |---------------------------------------------------------------- D9 D5 D9sus |-0----0----0---0---------||-0------------------||-0------------- |-1----1----1---1---------||-3------------------||-1------------- |-2----0h2-0h2--0h2--0----||-0h2p0--------------||-0------------- |-0-------------------3p0-||-------3p0-(repeat)-||-0------------- |-0-----------------------||--------------------||-0------------- |-0-----------------------||--------------------||-0-------------
(spoken over improvised blues guitar riffs in D)
There's a black and white crow on the back of a two toned sheep
in a field of broken yellow stalks below looming cliffs
high above the plain little grey houses
blend with giant jagged boulders
and pale weathered stumps
life in the ghost of the bush
wind whips the acacias and strange forked palms
that cluster around the water hole
suddenly, out of the blowing sand
a milk-white camel appears
turbaned rider, blue robe billowing
bounces with the shambling trot
wears a sword and a rifle on his back
and around his neck, a transistor radio
you blink and like ghosts, they're gone
under the wan disk of sand-masked sun, a woman grins
spits expertly into the path of a struggling black beetle . . .
six feet away
hoists her water bucket onto her head and strides off up the trail
D5 < < , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . ||0-----------0----------(0)-----|0-----------0-----------1-------|| ||3-----------3-----------1------|3-----------3-----------1-------|| ||0h2---------0h2---------0------|0h2---------0h2--------(0)------|| ||-------------------------------|--------------------------------|| ||-------------------------------|--------------------------------|| ||---------------------------(0)-|----------------------------0---|| repeat
Sun a steel ball glowing C+9 G/B behind endless blowing sand D5 C+9 G/B G+9 sun a steel ball glowing D5 C+9 G/B Am9 Em+9 dust of fallen empires slowly flowing through my hands C+9 use me while you can Pearl held in black fingers is the moon behind dry trees pearl held in black fingers bird inside the rib cage is beating to be free use me while you can Refrain: F6/9 D9 I've had breakfast in New Orleans, dinner in Timbuktu F6/9 D9 I've lived as a stranger in my own house too F6/9 D9 dark hand waves in lamplight cowrie shell patterns change F6/9 and nothing . . . will be the same again Bullet in a sand storm looking for a place to land bullet in a sand storm full heart beats an empty one in the deck they dealt to man use me while you can use me while you can
Em+9 C+9 D5