Take this Waltz - chords, tab and comments
At the bottom you'll find a link to the complete lyrics.
This song was first released in 1986 as a part of the Federico García Lorca tribute album "Poet in New York" (Poeta en Nueva York), and the words are a loose translation of "Pequeño vals vienés" (Little Viennese Waltz). In 1988 it was included with Cohen's studio album "I'm Your Man", added violin and the marvellous co-vocal of Jennifer Warnes.
The spanish poet's full name was Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (1898 – 1936). He was also a playwright and theatre director. He was executed by nationalists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, and his body was never found. His works was a great inspiration to Cohen in his youth, and his daughter got the name "Lorca" after him.
C C/B Am
now in Vienna there's ten pretty women
C Em Am
there's a shoulder where death comes to cry
F G
there's a lobby with nine hundred windows
F C ...E7
there's a tree where the doves go to die
Am
there's a piece that was torn from the morning
Dm A7 Dm
and it hangs in the gallery of frost
F C
ay ay ay ay
E7 Bdim Am
take this waltz take this waltz
D F
take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws
[G ... Am ... G ... G7]
Am
this waltz this waltz this waltz this waltz
Dm Am
with its very own breath of brandy and death
Dm C
dragging its tail in the sea