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Chords Req: Mattie (Johnny Mulhern)

GUEST,drummerRob 29 Jun 06 - 05:43 PM
Declan 29 Jun 06 - 07:51 PM
GUEST,Drummerrob 03 Aug 06 - 08:57 AM
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Subject: Need guitar chords for 'Mattie'
From: GUEST,drummerRob
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 05:43 PM

Looking for guitar chords for a song called "Mattie"... it's in the DT database... who can help?

drummerrob


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Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: MATTIE (Johnny Mulhern)
From: Declan
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:51 PM

This is how I do it. Its a simple 3 chord trick G, C and D but it works fine. Not sure if the spacing of the chords will work out right, but you should be able to get the general idea.

I've made some minor amendments to the lyrics posted earlier (as I hear them). As well as Sean Tyrell's great version, it was also recorded by CHristy Moore on the Ordinary Man album in the early 80s

MATTIE

by Johnny Mulhern

G
Mattie walked out on a frozen night
       C                         G
He was heading for the pub and he had no delight
   C               G
He headed down the railroad track
       D                   G
And his old cow Delia sat a lowin' him back

   G
He met with a dark and staggerin' man
      C                     G
As he passed him by shouted back at him:
C                           G
Mattie can't you see what's become of me
   D             G
I cannot feel the fight

    G
The very last house that I've left
    C
Half impressed with my rhymes
       G
is now dead to me
C                        G
All I've got left is the beat of the stagger
       D                G
Heading down the Curragh Line

But Mattie passed on as quick as he could
He couldn't stand such a drunken man sober
All he wanted was the lights in the bar
The 'Nightingale' and the 'Wild Rover'.

D
When he came in
    G
They said: Ah you're back
Did Delia drive you out
With your spoutin' and your swearin'?
       D                   G
We don't want to hear about Bunker Hayden
C                         D          G
Later you can give us the 'Girls of Kinkane'.

The fear-a-ti* eyed him warily
As he handed him his first jar of porter
He says: You must have seen the bishop's ghost tonight
To put the dry look back in your eye.

But Mattie would not be taken in
By their jibin' and their regalin'
He found himself a freshly blowin' crew
And fell in with their sport and their bailin'.

But as he was going home, in the very same spot
Where he met his dark familiar
He seen him comin' back down the line
And he was bright, strange and fine.

As he passed him by Mattie threw out his arms
Trying to grab hold of his likeness
In the morning all they found was a frozen corpse
And the butt of Curragh Line.

And at the wake
They were lashin' down
'The drops of brandy'
'The old fashioned habit'
In the church they were lashin' down pounds and fivers
So Mattie would be fine in the old by and by.

* man of the house

Sung by Seàn Tyrrell on "Cry of a Dreamer" (1995)


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Subject: RE: Chords Req: Mattie (Johnny Mulhern)
From: GUEST,Drummerrob
Date: 03 Aug 06 - 08:57 AM

Thank you so much!!! Actually I figured it out as well, then found your very helpful post. I first heard the christy moore version, where the words are very different. Being from the u.s., I think I heard some of my own words and meanings rather than those that were intended by the author. For instance, I thought I heard heard on chiristy's version: All Ive got is the deed to the stagger, at the end of the curra line. SO......... for the past few months ive been thinking that a stagger was vernacular for a track of land, and that this is a ghost story about a ghost who tried to sell his deed to mattie. Since mattie wouldnt have anything to do with him, he got him on the way back, showing his true ghost self..."bright and strange and fine"
There are other spots as well.
Am I waaaay off or is this generally the crux of the bisquit???


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