[ Blue Wing von Dave Alvin ]



 D
 He had a blue wing tattooed on his shoulder
 D                                   Em
 Might have been a bluebird, I don't know 
                Em
 But he got stone drunk and he talked about Alaska
 A                    D
 Salmon boats and 45 below


 D
 Well he got that blue wing at Walla Walla
  D                                   Em
 And his cell mate was a Little Willy John
                 Em
 Willie, he was once a great blues singer
  A                    D
 So Wing & Willie wrote him up a song


 Chorus:
 (NC)               D                   G  
 Sang, it's dark in here, can't see the light
       D                                     A
 But I look at this blue wing when I close my eyes
           D                  G 
 And I fly away, beyond these walls
              D                            A
 Up above the clouds, where the rain don't fall
                 D    G A  D   
 On a poor man's dreams


 D
 Well they broke blue wing in August in 1963
  D                                   Em
 And blue wing moved on, picking apples in the town of Wenatchee
                 Em
 Winter finally caught him in a rundown trailer park
  A                                                 D
 On the south side of Seattle where the days grow long and dark


 D
 And he drank and he dreamt a vision of when the seven still ran free
  D                                   Em
 And his father's fathers crossed that wide old Bering sea
                 Em
 The land belonged to everyone, there were old songs yet to sing
  A                                                     D
 Now, it's broken down to a cheap hotel and a tattooed prison wing


(NC)               D                   G 
 Now, it's dark in here, can't see the light
       D                                     A
 But I look at this blue wing when I close my eyes
           D                  G 
 And I fly away, beyond these walls
              D                            A
 Up above the clouds, where the rain don't fall
                 D    G A  D   
 On a poor man's dreams


 D
 Well he drank his way to heaven and that's where he died
 D                                               Em
 And no one knew his Christian name, and there was no one there who cried
      Em
 But I dreamt that there was a service,a preacher in an old pine box
  A                                              D
 And halfway through the service, the wing began to talk 


(NC)               D                   G 
 He said, it's dark in here, can't see the light
        D                                     A
 But I look at this blue wing when I close my eyes
           D                  G 
 And I fly away, beyond these walls
              D                            A
 Up above the clouds, where the rain don't fall
                 D    G A  D   
 On a poor man's dreams