Fairport Convention - Rosemarys Sister

      Live version on the record "Journeyman's Grace" (2005, recorded 2003).
Studio version by Simon Nicol on "Before your time" (1987).
The versions are virtually the same, some minor differences in the lyrics
("You" or "we" in the last chorus).
Notes on the chords below.

[Instrumental verse]

C Em/B Am Am/G F F/G C
F C G
C Em/B Am Am/G F F/G C
F G C
F G C C/B Am
F C Am G
C C/B Am Am/G
F F/G C
F C
C Am F G7
C C/B Am Am/G F G7


[Verse 1]

C     Em/B   Am    Am/G  F     F/G     C
Mother of Disaster and  Sister of our Fate,
F                  C           G
do you count the tragedies we see?
C      Em/B   Am    Am/G   F     F/G    C
Father of Confusion and  Brother of Debate,
   F              G             C
do you recall the sister of Rosemary?
    F                G
The doodlebugs were flying
    C        C/B     Am
The Blitz was at its height
F               C              Am          G
Rosemary lay sleeping with her sister only five,
     C     Em/B      Am       Am/G
and no one heard the one that hit
     F        F/G      C
the one that blew the lid.
 F                   C            G      G6    C
Rosemary came out crying but her sister never did.

[Chorus]
         C   Am            Gadd2     G       C
And you fly high and your dreams are all in vain
     F              C              Am               G
one moment you are singing and the next you cry in pain
    C       Em/B     Am
But high above the heavens
Am/G   F        F/G    Am
on a  host of angels' wings
F          C              G    C
Rosemarys sister will be dancing.

C Am F G7
C C/B Am Am/G F G7

[Verse 2]
     C     Em/B  Am       Am/G     F   F/G     C
Her mother cried all that year as many others did
      F                C               G
She pulled thru for a moment now and then.
         C     Em/B     Am      Am/G          F     F/G       C
And the people down in Bethnal Street in the rubble and the stones
      F                    G           C
swept up their lives and started off again.
      F          G          C      C/B      Am
When tyranny is biting you do your best to try
    F             C                   Am            G
to stifle all your heartaches till it's safe again to cry
     C      Em/B      Am        Am/G          F         F/G      C
And when at last the darkness clears and the sun comes shining thru
        F             G6            C
you're dusted off and starting all anew

[Chorus]
         C   Am            Gadd2     G       C
And you fly high and your dreams are all in vain
     F              C               Am              G
one moment you are singing and the next you cry in pain
    C       Em/B     Am
But high above the heavens
Am/G   F      F/G      Am
on  a host of angels' wings
F           C              G  C
Rosemary's sister will be dancing

C Am F G7

[Instrumental verse]

C Em/B Am Am/G F F/G C
F C G
C Em/B Am Am/G F F/G C
F G C
F G C C/B Am
F C Am G
C Em/B Am Am/G
F F/G C
F G6 C
C Am F G7
C C/B Am Am/G F G7

[Verse 3]
           C      Em/B     Am
There's a teacher in the classroom,
Am/G       F     F/G     C
there's a mother in the hall.
F                     C                     G
The children sit and wait for the bell for home.
C     Em/B   Am      Am/G       F       F/G     C
Rosemary is waiting, she has a child now of her own
       F            G                  C
she's waiting to collect and take her home.
      F               G              C         C/B       Am
But sometimes in the silence in the firelight where she sits
     F                 C                      Am              G
her mind goes back to Bethnal Street, to the darkness and the Blitz.
          C       Em/B     Am    Am/G
And she knows if there's another one,
         F        F/G     Am
then the end will be complete –
   F                 G6              C
I wonder what they'd say in Bethnal Street.

[Chorus]
         C   Am            Gadd2      G      C
And you fly high and your dreams are all in vain
     F             C              Am               G
One moment we are singing and the next we cry in pain.
     C    Em/B     Am
But high above the heavens
Am/G   F      F/G       Am
on a  host of angels' wings
F           C              G    C
Rosemary's sister will be dancing.

C C/B Am Am/G F G7 C

[Outro] 
C F G  C
(very muted)

Notes:
======
Play the first chord in lines 1 and 3 in the verse, and in the chorus
in the form x3x013 and then x3x010 – with a initial high 5th on the e-string.

Play the second chord in lines 1 and 3 in the verse in the form x2x000 and then x2x001

(I've chosen to write that second chord as E minor over B, to emphasis the melodic movement,
and because I lift the index finger from the C on the b-string to do the F on the e-string,
leaving the b to sound slightly.
Technically, you could also interpret it as a C or Cmajor7 over B, or a G6 over B ...
For the similar passage in the second half of the verse, though,
I've chosen to keep the C/B, to emphasize the falling baseline.)

(Always tricky to "collapse" a mostly picked arrangement to chords. Should a passing note
be ignored, or considered a colouring of the chord before or after?)

Try an alternative Dm7 instead of F in the last line of verse three ("I wonder..."), if you like.
Good colouring after the Am.

Go directly into the instrumental bars after each chorus.

"Doodlebug" – a British colloquial name for the V-1 flying bomb.