Chords & tab and comments for "Avalanche"


This is the song which introduced me to the dark world of Leonard Cohen. A classmate brought the album with her to a music lesson at high school, and I was stuck. 20 years later I played the song at an anniversary meeting, and she asked me "WHO wrote that???" Well, time sure goes by ...
Em                 C           Em        D     Em
I stepped into an avalanche   it covered up my soul
Em                  C                     Em         D               Em
when I am not this hunchback that you see I sleep beneath the golden hill
G                B7                    Em                        C   Gmaj13   B5
you who wish to conquer pain you must learn   learn to serve me well
For many years, this song rested in my drawer, until I accidentally stumbled upon the way to play the pulsing, rolling rhytm. It's a kinda clawhammer: playing the bass "dum dum ... dum dum" with the thumb, using 2-3 fingers to play the "doodelidoodeli" repeatingly, syncoped by ear and feeling. Also the transition chord between the verses troubled me for a long time; I even bought the book with notes for the album (at a higher expence than the LP :-D) and it came up with the fucking wrong harmony. Bastards! C major 13th, that's it.
E minor
Em
C major
C
D major
D
G major
G
B 7th
B7
G major 13th
Gmaj13
B 5th
B5
Leonard Cohen