Chords for Gamble's Guitar: A Conversation with Michael Smith

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_ [E] _ _ [G] _ Down in St.
Augustine, F.L..A., I [Em] was walking along the beach one day, _ [C] sun beating down like a steel drum plays, [A] so bright that you couldn't [Em] see far. [G] I was listening to the waves rolling in, [Em] humming a tune from I don't know when, _ [C] thinking of days that won't come again, when [D] I thought I heard [G] Gamble's guitar. _ _ [C] Whole lotta country, [G] whole lotta blues, whole lotta sunshine, sand in your shoes, [D] sound of a player who pays dues, [G] puts a mile on the Mustang car. _ [C] Shot of Merle, jigger of [G] Chet, little bit of Will McLean, I bet, [D] only the wind in the palms and yet, thought I [G] heard Gamble's guitar. _ Sang of the swamps and the snakes and the [Em] vines, sang of the cypress and the phosphate mines, [C] nights up late in the whispering pines, [D] watching for [Em] a shooting star. _ _ [G] Stony rows, fishing poles, [Em] _ afternoons at the swimming [C] hole, mouth low, played by a seminal, _ [Dm] thought I heard [Em] Gamble's guitar. _ [N] _ _ _ [Eb] Okay, well, Gamble and I [Gm] were really good friends. [N] _ _ By that I mean I think he really liked me, _ and I really liked him, _ and we never had any tension, and he was very, [Gm] he was laudatory towards me, _ [Bb] that's the best way I can put it, he acted as if I was really hot shit as a songwriter. [C] Who he was, he was a [Eb] very classy individual, and he was a very bright, _ [D] very bright man, and he _ _ was not a fool. _ _ What he perceived, you wanted to believe _ that you were capable of perceiving yourself. He said [Bb] a thing to me I'll never forget, because, you know, to get something from him, man, it was like a big deal. [N] I had this song called Blazing Guns, and I had recorded it, and that was the Mickey and Guys record, it was 74, 73, 74, and he said about Blazing Guns, that blow over the ceiling, [Ab] the last verse, he said, that's the [Bb] most perfect last verse I've ever heard in my life. _ [C] And it's okay, you know, it's okay, but [G] when he said that, man, for me, it was like, oh, okay, I'm done, [C] you know, I'm done messing with [E] that song, you know what I'm saying, I'm in [Bbm] a party. I have messed with it since, [N] and it was unfortunate, actually. _ _ The thing was, the reason I kept the last verse was Gamble gave it seal of approval, and not only, I mean, but he would talk about it, he'd say, it's a big deal what you've done, it's a big deal. And so for me, I accept that it was a big deal. So I was grateful to him for giving me this, you know, and on the one hand and on [Bm] the other, we were both [Em] from Florida. _ [G] In the old boys picking by the front porch stove while digging for treasure in a pirate's cove, [C] in a coffee house down in Coconut [G] Grove, [D] doesn't matter where [Em] you are. _ [G] Behind Spanish walls in Winter Park, [Em] in the smell of jasmine in the dark, [C] running a speed trap outside Stark, [D] a thought of her [Em] Gamble's guitar. _ _ [G] So [B] when Gamble [Dm] died, it was a big shock on the one hand, and on the other, I was really annoyed with him _ _ _ _ _ _ _ giving so much. _ _ You know, some stranger could have died, it would have been [Bb] fine with me. Another guy dies in the ocean, God knows, [Ab] but it was Gamble that put us, _ offered him himself in [B] place. _ _ _ [E] And that really annoyed me for a while, and I was just pissed [N] at him. And then _ _ I realized, you know, it was just a lovely experience knowing him in general. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ And witnessing, you know, I mean, I'm very happy that [E] he got so successful. You know, I think that [Em] _ that was part of his power. _ [G] I want to sleep beside the sea tonight, hear [Em] the crash of waves, see the tops [G] all light. [C] I want to be grateful for what's gone right, I want to [D] wish upon a [Em] star. _ _ [G] God bless old friends from way before, [Em] bless old banjos, old country stores, [C] bless old Florida forevermore. _ [A] And God bless [Em] Gamble's guitar. _ You know, anyway, [E] he was a cool guy. And that song was very [D] emotional for me. It was a very, it was very real. I mean, I don't make up stuff anymore. _ I literally don't make up stuff anymore. _ You know, when I'm writing a song, what I'm saying to you is what I think, what I'm really, _ you know, it isn't to make the song better. I might not tell you some stuff I'm really thinking, but it's because it's boring or because it doesn't contribute. But I'm sincere. This is very sincere _ [B] time for me. _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
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God [G] _ _ _ [E] _ bless [G] Gamble's guitar. _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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