Chords for Cris WIlliamson - Retrospective

[Dm] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [A#] _ _
_ _ [Gm] I didn't set [C] out to write [G] what's called women's [A] music, but apparently I did.
_ _ [Dm] It's music that [Am] speaks certainly to a [A#] woman's heart.
Sometimes I look back and [Gm] remember so clearly those early [Dm] days when we first moved into the studios
and started [Am] gathering women from all over the world [A#] to begin to play this thing called women's [F] music,
which, [Gm] as far as I'm concerned, made Christians made up.
[A] To this day, when people pick that album up [Dm] and they don't know anything about [Am] women's music or me,
or [A#] they don't have any of that groundwork, any of that [Gm] attachment,
it's like a portal [Dm] through which they go.
And when they [C] go through it, something [A#] happens to them that's like a magnetic [Gm] transference.
It's a magical experience.
[A] _ _ [E] _ [G#m] What [C#m] _
I love about [Bm] this particular album is that [Em] it remains mysterious [Gm] to me.
[D] It's effect on [E] people.
And it [G] isn't just grounded [D] in [E] time zone in which it was [Bm] born, in those 70s.
Yes, [B] it came out of that.
[F#] And I [C#m] think [B] I set up_
I mean, music's nothing more than [E] vibration, really.
We [C#m] know that.
[F#] And beyond vibration, there is nothing.
[C#m] So [B] apparently I set [E] up the vibration [A] just right, so that in [F#m] each song, [C#m] from piece to piece [E] to piece,
and as it goes, it's like a little journey that [C#m] they take.
It still happens [F#] to this day.
[B] _
_ [E] _ _ [B] I [E] only played one guitar song on Changer, and it's a country tune.
There's much backstory in the lyrics.
The I'm so [F#] sad you left me country song.
But [B] it has a tiny [E] bit of tongue-in-cheek in it.
[Cm] And [B]
[E] this part on the guitar, which is just [B] me [C#m] telling me, [F#m] don't get too serious [E] about this.
Don't be too darn sad.
[D#m] _ [A] _ _
Tuning Star, when you hear it on the Changer album, it just [D] gallops, man.
It just shoots.
[N] It just can't help itself.
You can hardly rein it in.
I did write it driving, just like it says, driving through the desert, heading [Em] towards L.A.
That put the top up [D] in rain was just pounding, [F#m] and it provided the rhythm [N] and the rhythm of the road.
And as songwriters, you know that.
The rhythms are everywhere.
If you're on a train and you're writing a song, it's going to take the rhythm [C] of the train.
It will [E] absorb, you know, and this was the rhythm of the road and the rain and all of that, and my urgency to get to L.A.
_ [Am] _ _ [D] _ _
[G] _ But I can always do [D] anything [Em] from the Changer [G] and the Change because that [D] whole premise, the title, holds true.
[G] I [Em] was changed.
I'm endlessly changed every day, and [D] as such, [G] I try to put that in artists.
I try to put that [D] back out in the world so that everyone can become that, too.
I'm not the only one.
[Em] You know, I never claim to be it.
[G] I just let it come through me.
_ _ [D] _
[Am] _ _ [D] _ _ [Am] _ _ [D] _ [G]
The way I [D] heard this song [Am] beginning [D] was with a [Em] hymn that was my favorite hymn [Bm] as a [G] child.
_ Open mine eyes [D] that I may see, glimpses of truth [G] thou hast for me.
Open _ [C] as you _
[Am] _ _ _ [D] see [F] me.
Come to your life like a warrior, [G] nothing will bore you.
You can be happy.
At the time, to [E] tell lesbians [G] that they could be happy [Em] was [D] revolutionary.
[Am] _ [D] _ I didn't know [Am] it.
I just thought [G] it's a simple thing.
You can be happy or unhappy.
[D] [Am] It's not about who you love.
[D] It's about your nature.
[Bm] It's about [G] your soul.
This is a [D] song of the soul, and that was the song [G] of my soul at [C] the time.
I just can't [G] pour it out in the most beautiful way.
[Am] _ [Gm] _ _ _ [A] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
Sweet rising sun.
Sweet Woman was [G] a love letter written to [Gm] me [D] _ _ [A] by my girlfriend at the time.
[Em] And _ [A] I've heard tales [Bm] from women who say, [A] I almost drove off the road because all of a sudden [A#] it hit me.
This was [C] a song about [D] loving a woman, sung by a woman.
And it just [Em] hit me then, so powerfully.
I [A] was so innocent at the time.
I just thought, [Dm] well, you love who you love.
What's [G] the big deal?
People said to [Gm] me, it's [Dm] illegal.
I went, what?
I had no idea.
[G] _ _ _ [Dm] _ [G] _
A lot [D] of these songs came out of a pure kind of innocence on [Em] my part.
And a [G] pondering, _ endlessly, as I do now, of the human [D] condition.
That's what interests me.
[G] How it is that [D] we are caught between the devils and the angels.
[Em] Somewhere in this strange middle ground, we've got to figure it out. _
[A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ [Em] _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] I [F#m] hold [Bm] you in my [Em] sweet warm [A] love, rising [Dm] so far.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _