This chart will look wacky unless you
rotate your phone

 

Downtown Train

Tom Waits

 

Note:  The key of the original recording is somewhere between D and Eb--instruments were not tuned to concert pitch (or the studio's tape machine was off-speed).  This version is a little higher, in the key of E.

 

Use power chords with palm-mute throughout.

 

Intro:  / E - - - / A - B - / x2

 

E                 A (½)    B (½)

   Outside another yellow moon

E                          A (½)          B (½)       

    Has punched a hole in the nighttime

E                                A (½)          B (½)

   I climb through the window and down to the street

E          A (½)             B (½)

    I'm shining like a new dime

 

A                           B

    The downtown trains are full

A                          B

    With all those Brooklyn girls

C#m                               B

      They try so hard to break out of their little world

 

E                                A (½)            B (½)

    You wave your hand and they scatter like crows

E                   A (½)                B (½)

   They have nothing that will ever capture

  E                                     A (½)       B (½)

your heart.  They're just thorns without the rose

E       A (½)           B (½)

    Be careful of them in the dark

 

A                B

    And if I was the one

A                                          B

     You chose to be your only one

C#m                    B

        Oh baby now, can't you hear me now

 

 

E                      A (½)               B (½)

   I know your window and I know it's late

E                 A (½)                      B (½)

   I know your stairs and your doorway

E                              A (½)         B (½)

   I walk down your street and past your gate

E                        A (½)                   B (½)

   I stand by the light at the four-way

 

A                                       B

   You watch them as they fall

         A                                           B

Oh baby, and they all have heart attacks

          C#m                                      B

They stay at the carnival, but they'll never win you back

 

Chorus

 

E                                A    

   Will I see you tonight

E                           A

   on a downtown train

E                              A       

   Where all of my dreams, they fall like rain

F#m         B

         Oh baby, on a downtown train

 

Instrumental (uses three-over-four rhythm):

/ E - B - / E - B - / E - A - / B - - - /

/ E - B - / E - B - / E - A - / B - - - / Bsus4 - - - /

 

Chorus (don't sing last line)

 

E                                A    

   Will I see you tonight

E                           A

   on a downtown train

 

E                              A       

   Where all of my dreams, they fall like rain

F#m         B

                    on a downtown train

 

E  A (½)         B (½)

          on a downtown train

E  A (½)         B (½)

          on a downtown train

E  A (½)         B (½)

          on a downtown train

 

End on E

This file is the author's own work and represents his interpretation of this song. It's intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.