This is the bleakest song I’ve heard since “Tom Traubert’s Blues” maybe. From what little I know, Charles Latham is from DC and now lives in Philly (via London). If I had the book with me, I’d quote in advance of the song I’m about to tab from Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs, which in addition to being all-over incredible has a bit about tragedy as a luxury for the happy, healthy, and generally well-off. Much of my love for this song comes from its role as a kind of check or reminder, and needing such a thing’s a pretty nice position to be in. But at any rate that book’s in my campus office and I’m on my couch for the time being.
Time: 3/4
Tuning: down 1/2 step (ish)
Intro: G D G
Verse 1:
G D G
Cutting back on the drinking won't help.
C D G
You're getting fat and you will die by yourself
C D C D
in the same hateful job for too many years,
G D
and you'll drown in your tears,
G D
drown in your tears,
G D Em
you will drown in the tears of your 20s.
Verse 2 (same chords):
You cannot believe that your joy has died,
so cling on to some semblance of pride,
but at the Golden Corral, you'll have that third pate of ribs.
Start to cry in your bib,
cry in your bib.
You are wearing a bib in your 30s.
Verse 3:
And you'll claim that you know what is hip.
Simultaneously grow nostalgic.
You'll seem to remember a simpler time,
and you'll cry in your wine,
cry in your wine,
you will cry in your wine in your 40s.
Bridge:
C
Take a jog around the block.
D
You do not look better, you're not looking better.
G D G
Verse 4:
One day you'll get used to your rut.
Chalk it up to just growing up.
You'll pass on your life lessons with a know-it-all grin
to the kids who will hate you,
and most likely ignore you,
G D
your kids they will hate you,
G D
your kids they will hate you.
End with G, and tears of your own.