Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel

Townes Van Zandt / Townes Van Zandt: Townes Van Zandt (1969)

	intro:	C	Em	F	Em	Dm	G	F

	C	Em
Well, the	drunken clown still	hanging 'round,

	F	Em	Dm
But it's	plain the	laughters	all died down;

	G	F	C
The	tears you tried so	hard to hide are	flowing.

	C	Em
	And a blind man with his	knife in hand

	F	Em	Dm
Has con	vinced him	self that he	understands -

	G	F	C
I	wish him well, Miss Carousel, but	I gotta be a	going.

	C	Em
Well the	lady's been told that	all her gold

	F	Em	Dm
Is	worth so	much, she	can't be sold;

	G	F	C
No	time to weep, she'll	later sleep to	morrow.

	C	Em
	When she carries her face to the	market place

	F	Em	Dm
And	bets it	on the	open enrage -

	G
She can	ring her bells, Miss Carousel,

	F	C
but the	singing brings me	sorrow.

	C	Em
Well it's	always done, every	mothers sun

	F	Em	Dm
Is	surely	grown, and	never run;

	G	F	C
	So they fight with	all their might	inside them.

	C	Em
	When the battles been fought 'n	they've all been taught

	F	Em	Dm
That the	trick is	just not	being caught;

	G
	Will you give 'em hell, Miss Carousel,

	F	C
When they're	begging you to	hide them.

	C	Em
When they	need a rose, your	eyes felt closed;

	F	Em	Dm
You	clamped your	fingers '	round your nose -

	G	F	C
	Would you say, that's any	way to	judge him.

	C	Em
	Well you haven't got the	authority

	F	Em	Dm
To	kill him	in the	first degree -

	G
But would you	feel compelled, Miss Carousel,

	F	C
If you had	something to	regret in.

	Am	Em	Am	Em	Am	Em	F	Em	G

	C	Em
On a	velvet beach far	beneath the reach

	F	Em	Dm
Of	those who	come to	pry and preach,

	G	F	C
The	natural man that tried to	stand is	falling.

	C	Em
	Well how long will it be	before he sees:

	F	Em	Dm
You	own his	legs but his	mind is free!

	G
Only	you can tell, Miss Carousel,

	F	C
How	long will he be	crawling.

	C	Em
All the	castle walls	grown so tall,

	F	Em	Dm
	Seems there	ain't no	hope at all -

	G	F	C
To	reach the top even	though you stopped your	breathin'.

	C	Em
	But I ain't gonna try to	make you cry,

	F	Em	Dm
The	teardrops	couldn't	find your eye,

	G
It's	all been swell, Miss Carousel,

	F	C
The	time has come for	leaving!