Sawdust And Diamonds Chords

KeyC CapoNone TuningStandard Difficulty Plays421

Sawdust And Diamonds by Joanna Newsom is a moderately challenging guitar song played in the key of C. It uses the chords C, Em, G, D, Am and A. Use the transpose and diagram tools on this page to change the key, see each shape, or simplify the chords.

Transpose
C
Text
16
Speed
  			
verse 1 
                C 
From the top of the flight 
Em              C 
Of the wide white stairs 
Em              C 
Through the rest of my life 
Em              C 
Do you wait for me there? 
Em              C 
There's a bell in my ears 
Em              C 
There's the wide white roar 
Em              C 
Drop a bell down the stairs 
Em              C 
Hear it fall forever mor 
Em              C 
Hear it fall forevermore 

 G               Em 
Drop a bell off of the dock 
G               Em 
Blot it out in the sea 
G               Em 
Drowning mute as a rock 
G               Em 
sounding mutiny 
G 
There's a light in the wings, hits this system of strings, 
                            Em 
from the side while they swing; 
See the wires, the wires, the wires. 

Verse  
G 
And the articulation in our elbows and knees 
Em 
Makes us buckle and we couple in endless increase 
As the audience admires 
G 
And the little white dove 
Made with love, made with love 
Em 
Made with glue and a glove and some pliers 
G 
Swings a low sickle arc from its perch in the dark 
Em 
Settle down, settle down my desire 

D 
And the moment I slept 
C                       G 
I was swept up in a terrible tremor 
D                               C 
Though no longer bereft, how I shook 
                 Em 
And i couldn't remember 
D 
And then the furthermost shake 
Am 
Drove a murdering stake in 
C               Em             G 
And cleft me right down through my center 
D 
And I shouldn't say so 
C                       Em 
But I know that it was then or never 
G               Em 
Push me back into a tree 
G               Em 
Bind my buttons with salt 
G               Em 
Fill my long ears with bees 
G 
Braying 'please, please, please, 
                Em 
Oh you ought not! 
No you ought not!' 
G 
And then the system of strings tugs on the tip of my wings 
                             Em 
Cut from cardboard and old magazines 
Makes me warble and rise like a sparrow. 
G 
And in the place where I stood 
There is a circle of wood 
                         Em 
A quarter to which you chop and you stack in your barrow 
G 
And it is terribly good 
To carry water and chop wood 
                          Em 
Streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed 
G 
As I crash through the rafters 
And the ropes and the pulleys trail after 
                                        Em 
And the holiest, holiest belfry burns sky high 

Verse 
D 
And then a slow lip of fire 
C                       G 
Moves across the prairie with precision 
                                        C 
While somewhere with your pliers and glue 
                                     Em 
You make your first incision 
D                       A 
And in a moment of almost unbearable vision 
C                       Em                     G 
Doubled over with the hunger of lions 
D 
'Hold me close', cooed the dove 
          C                             Em 
Who was stuffed now with sawdust and diamonds 

Em              D                              G 
A       C      G 
I wanted to say 'why the long face?' 
A            C                         G 
Sparrow perch and play songs of long face 
A        C             G 
Burro buck and bray songs of long face 
                     Am                 C 
Sings 'i will swallow your sadness and eat your cold clay 
G 
Just to lift your long face 
A                               C 
And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave 
G 
Your precious long face 
A                                       C 
& though our bones they may break & our souls separate 
G 
Why the long face? 
                        A               C 
And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil 
G 
Why the long face? 

Bridge 
G                             Em 
In the trough of the waves 
G                             Em 
Which are pawing like dogs 
G                             Em 
Pitch we, pale-faced and grave 
G                             Em 
As I write in my log. 
G                             Em 
Then I hear a noise from the hull 
G                             Em 
Seven days out to sea 
G                             Em 
And it is the damnable bell 
G 
And it tolls, I believe, that it tolls 
              Em 
It tolls for me! 
And it tolls for me! 
G 
And though my wrists and my waist 
Seem so easy to break 
              Em 
Still my dear I would've walked you to the edge of the water 
G 
And they will recognize all the lines of your face 
              Em 
In the face of the daughter, of the daughter, of my daughter 
G 
And darling we will be fine 
But what was yours and mine 
Em 
Appears to be a sandcastle that the gibbering wave takes 
G 
But if it's all just the same 
Then say my name, say my name, 
Em 
in the morning so that i know when the wave breaks 

D 
I wasn't born of a whistle 
C                       G 
Or milked from a thistle at twilight 
D 
No, i was all horns and thorns 
                    C                                   Em 
Sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright 
D                       A 
So enough of this terror we deserve to know light 
C               Em             G 
And grow evermore lighter and lighter 
D 
You would have seen me through 
C               Em 
But I could not undo that desire 

Coda 
D       C      Em 
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire 
D       C      Em 
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire 
D       C      Em 
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh desire 
Em              C 
From the top of the flight 
Em              C 
Of the wide white stairs 
Em              C 
Through the rest of my life 
Em              C 
Do you wait for me there? 
    	

Chord diagrams

Guitar tuner

--
Start the tuner and play a string

Reference tones

Standard tuning, lowest to highest. Click a string to play it; the string the mic hears is highlighted.

Click Start tuner and allow microphone access. The needle centers and turns green when a string is in tune (within 5 cents).
No microphone? You can still tap any string above to hear its exact reference pitch.

Metronome

100 BPM Andante