Chords for Bruce Springsteen - Jesus Was an Only Son - The Story (From VH1 Storytellers)

Well, _ _ that's a song that starts from the premise that everybody knows what it's like to be
saved.
That's a shakier premise than the other one.
[F] _ _
_ _ On Devils and Dust I wrote several songs
about mothers and sons and this is really one of them.
I had second thoughts about it
today when I was behind the car with the bumper sticker that said, drive carefully, my mommy
is in this car.
I was moved to hit the gas and rear-ender as hard as I could.
_ _ _ _ It's something
I haven't written about a whole lot before and I was kind of interested in the relationship
between parent and [F] child, _ which is why Mary figures so prominently in the song.
I felt
if I [G] approached the song [F] from the secular side that the rest of it would come through.
_ _ To start with the title, Jesus was [Bb] an only son.
Now of course, Jesus had, [F] that's my main
metaphor, but Jesus had earthly brothers and sisters, but not on [C] this particular day.
This
day he was singular. _
As he walked up Calvary Hill, _ well that's his proving ground.
_ [F] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
That's
the darkness on the edge of town, his darkness on the edge of town. _
Once you're a Catholic,
there's no getting out.
That's about all [F] there is to it.
It keeps coming up.
_ _ Is Mother Mary
walking [Bb] beside him?
And she [F] would be.
In the path [C] where his blood spilled.
That is the
path of consequence and we all have one of those.
_ _ Jesus was an [F] only son in the hills
of Nazareth as he lay reading the Psalms of [Bb] David _ [F] at his [C] mother's feet.
[C] I wanted an
image of parental love and nurturing and [F] of life and of promise and of peace before what
was to [Bb] come.
_ [F] Mother pray sleep tight my [Bb] child, sleep [F] well, for I'll be at your side.
I've _ no shadow, no darkness, [Bb] no tolling [F] bell.
_ We'll pierce [C] your dreams [F] this night.
Well
every parent wants to keep their children from all harm.
It's _ such a primal thing.
I
was shocked when I first felt it so deep inside myself.
_ Then I had a conversation with a friend
where I was afraid that my kids were going to grow up.
I said, gee, they [Bb] might not have
to struggle like I [F] struggled.
Maybe that's not such a good thing.
He said, no, no, no,
you're a parent.
You give them the best because the world [F] is going to take care of the rest. _ _
That's [Bb] true.
The world awaits us all.
There's not much that [F] parents can do about it.
_ In the garden at _ [Bb] Gethsemane, he prayed for the life he'd never [F] live.
_ [Bb] He beseeched his
heavenly father [Bb] to remove [F] a cup of [C] death from his lips.
[F] _ You'd have to be thinking, _ gee,
there was that little bar in Galilee, pretty nice little place.
Weather's good down there
too.
I could manage the place.
[F] Mary Magdalene could tend [Bb] bar.
[F] We could have some kids.
The
preaching, _ I could do it on the weekends.
_ You don't have to give it up.
You'd have to
be thinking that.
[Bb] That's all there is to it. _
[F] There's a loss that can never [Bb] be replaced.
[F] _
Destination that can never be [Bb] reached. _
[F] Light you'll never find in [Bb] another's face.
[F] A sea
whose distance cannot [C] be breached.
[F] _ That verse is the finality of death. _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] Regardless of what
Jesus was going to mean for Mary, she was just losing her boy. _
_ _ _ _ We lose one another and
people don't get replaced.
I had [Bb] a friend, [F] my wife and I had a friend, a young lady who
lived next door to us, passed away at a very young age.
She used to come over our house
regularly every night.
There was a moment when she'd be framed in the front window just
before she was going to knock on the door.
I would look up and she was this very tall
and elegant _ lady.
I [D] still wait to see her in that [Bb] window.
_ [F] _ _
[F] Jesus kissed his [Bb] mother's
hands. _
[F] Whispered, mother, still your [Bb] tears. _ _
Remember the soul of the universe. _ _
Will the
world [C] end it [F] appears? _ _
That's transformation.
Our children have their own destiny.
They
have their own destiny apart from us.
_ _ [Bb] I think _ my idea was to try and reach into [F] the idea
of Jesus as son, as somebody's boy.
_ I think that whatever [Bb] divinity we can lay claim to
is hidden [F] in the core of our humanity.
When we let _ our compassion go, we let go of what
little claim we have to the divine.
[Bb] _ _ _ It's [F] spooky out there sometimes.
_ End of sermon.
[N] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ Sunny day.
_ [N] _ _ _ This is wrong.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _