The same chord progression is used throughout the entire song. Also, these are the same
chords used in a much earlier Okkervil River song titled "Murderess."
[Verse 1]
F#m D C#m Bm
Wh-oooo wrote those lines on the wall?
A G#m F#m E
Let's retrace where they scrawled ancient characters.
F#m D C#m Bm
It's 2:00, and your sister's slip falls,
A G#m F#m E
and the afternoon crawls across the room and tackles her.
[Chorus 1]
F#m D C#m Bm
I don't think that you would sink that ship that's only passing through,
A G#m F#m E
because I don't believe that you might be a murderess.
F#m D C#m Bm
But I saw inside each small, dark eye as it was turning blue,
A G#m F#m E
all the strength inside to do just what the captain says and hang the rest.
[Verse 2]
F#m D C#m Bm
Moved by the rhyme in the psalm,
A G#m F#m E
we agreed that it was wrong, and to believe in it.
F#m D C#m Bm
Oooh!, swooned the wall all night long.
A G#m F#m E
But a lie's a lie, no matter what guy's breath's in it.
[Chorus 2]
F#m D C#m Bm
I don't know that I would go that far down some dark avenue,
A G#m F#m E
with a whispering crew of shadows all protecting it.
F#m D C#m Bm
But I saw inside each small white lie, as it was turning true,
A G#m F#m E
the ability to do all things expected of it.
[Verse 3]
F#m D C#m Bm
Oh, murderess, in the wilderness, with your victims all around you.
A G#m F#m E
As their combined love forms a pool your knife's reflected in,
F#m D
now I'm ready, too, with my throat to you.
C#m Bm
On this mountain. By this moon.
A G#m F#m E
And what I want the most to do is prove that I'm not like them.
