You Are Not Needed Now
Townes Van Zandt
High, Low and In Between/The Late Great Townes Van Zandt
Standard Tuning
D A
Well the birds were talkin’ all at once
G
And the old man mowin’ down his lawn
A D
He didn’t look like much too bad a guy
And I was thinkin’ “Hang on, man, somethin’s wrong
Your blues they do seem to be gone,”
Heaven ain’t bad but you don’t get nothin’ done
F# G
Lay down your head awhile
D A
You are not needed now
D
You are not needed now
Well Allison laid an egg on me
And every time I turn around
It’s swimmin’ through the air above my bed
And I told Miss Hicks and she said fine
Long as you’re back in your room on time
I’ll keep you clean the girls will keep you fed
Lay down your head with mine
You are not needed now
And we got things to do
Well between the blankets made of wool
The trains go by every half an hour
And a body can’t get no restin’ done it’s true
So I spend my time as best I can
Thinkin’ big and makin’ plans
And wonderin’ where them trains are rollin’ to
Lay down your head poor boy
Feel how the ground does move
And hear how them drivers sing
Well goodbye friends it’s time to close
Everybody knows that’s the way it goes
Where was it you lived in case I’m ever there?
Well three doors down and two behind
And it gets a little bit out of hand sometimes
Don’t let it fool you into thinkin’ you don’t care
Lay down your head and fly
And I’ll quietly pass you by
You won’t even see me go
Well if I thought about it long enough
I just might make some kind of move
Watchful eyes are too hard on the soul
With the smokehouse just across the way
And this fog upon the light of day
I’d be hard pressed comin’ up with where to go
Lay down your head poor boy
Feel how the ground does move
And hear how them drivers sing
And what now my darling one?
We’ll go find a little fun
You are not needed now.
NOTES:
-Chord Shapes: I play standard shapes usually when doing this but I have the “Private
DVD of his and when doing this song, I noticed he uses exclusively partial barre shapes
only makes sparing use of the bass strings, both formations are listed below.
-The last D in the chorus is a very sudden transition, took me a while to get it just
Listen to the song and you’ll see what I mean, also listen to get the chord changes/lyric
just right. This was transcribed from the album version of the song which contains only
and drums so have some fun with it, use whatever shapes you like, there really
a wrong way to go about it. Try throwing a Gsus instead of a G for a nice subtle variation.
D: xx0232 -or- xx0775
A: x02220 -or- xx7655
G: 320003 -or- xx5433
F#: 244322 -or- xx4322
tabbed by the-ian
