Mount Tam

Return to Leslie Fish's Filksongs

 Am   E  Am  G      C        G    Am
 Here I sit on the head of Mount Tam.
  Dm       F          C   G
 Might as well be in Vietnam.
      F         Em  E  Am
 The battle is coming soon.
       F                     Am
 The stars are hid, but the sky is gray
           G             Em          Am       G
 With the lights of the cities that ring the Bay
          Am         D  E    Am     G
 In the shape of a crescent moon.  So -- (Cho)

              Am   E   Am C    G    Am
  CHORUS: If there be anything here
            F     Dm          Am          C         G
  That cometh not in the name of the Powers of Light,
           Em      Am          C         G         Em
   Am-G-Am
  Then in the name of the Powers of Light, let it be gone!

 Cities live.  The stones have soul
 As long as one dweller stands up whole,
 And here are three million lives.
 Their spirit runs through the nerves of wire,
 Through the concrete bones and the furnace-fire.
 The body of stone survives.  So -- (Cho)

 Warnings groan that the deep plate-crack
 Will shake one burden from Earth's green back.
 Tonight one of us goes down.
 So here we fight with our wizards' force
 To shift the fault in its other course --
 And swallow the Southern Crown!  So -- (Chorus)

 We who feel the currents of power
 Have no rest in the darkening hour
 Of a war that we did not choose.
 But if some city must fall to brine,
 I swear that city shall not be mine.
 I do not intend to lose!  So -- (Chorus)

 So aim the bolt, and raise the shield.
 The choice is cruel, but we dare not yield
 When life is the prize of war.
 San Andreas, we curse your name
 As we strike your fault with our silent flame
 And deflect, and deflect once more!  Sing! (Chorus)



(c) 1985 Leslie Fish and Random Factors