The Living Years

 8  8  8 -8 -8  7      8     8   8 -8   -8
Ev-ry gen-er-a-tion, blames the one be-fore,
 -6  8  8    8    -8  -8    7
and all to their frus-tra-tions, 
 -6    8   8  8   -8   -8
come beat-ing on your door.
-8  9   9   9 -9  -9   8
I know that Im a pris-ner,
 8  8  -9  9  9     9  -9  8
to all my fa-ther held so dear,
-6  9   9   9 -9 -9   8
I know that Im a hos-tage,
-8  9   9   -10   8    8
to all his hopes and fears.
7  7    -9 -9  -9    8    8   -8
I just wish I could have told him,
-9  9   8  -8    7
in the liv-ing years.

CHORUS

7-8  5  -5   6    6  7   -6
Oh, Say it loud, say it clear, 
 -6  -6  -8  8  -9  -9   8  -8   8
you can lis-ten as well as you hear.
 5  -5    6    6    7 -6
Its too late, when we die,
-6 -6 -8  8   -9  -9    8  -8  7
to ad-mit we dont see, eye to eye.

VERSE 2

So we crum-pled bits of pa-per,
filled-with im-per-fect thought,
stilt-ed con-ver-sa-tions,
Im a-fraid thats all weve got.
You say you just dont see it,
he says it makes per-fect sense.
You just cant get a-gree-ment,
in this pres-ent tense.
We all talk a dif-frent lan-guage,
talk-ing in de-fense

CHORUS (Omit the word Oh from here on)

VERSE 3

So we o-pened up the quar-rel,
be-tween the pres-ent and the past.
We on-ly sac-ri-fice the fu-ture,
its the bit-ter-ness that lasts.
So dont yield to the for-tunes, 
you some-times see as fate.
It may have a new per-spec-tive,
on a dif-frent day.
And if you dont give up and dont give in,
you may just be O K

CHORUS

VERSE 4

I wasnt there that morning, 
my fa-ther passed a-way. I did-nt get to tell him
all the things I had to say.