Gulf Of Araby Tab by Natalie Merchant


Gulf Of Araby
Katell Keineg

as performed by Natalie Merchant and co.
on the album:
Live In Concert
New York City
June 12, 1999

transcribed on 1-6-05 by Michael Hallahan
mjoemoon@yahoo.com

I think this is pretty close.

Dropped D tuning

        D               A               G               G
  1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4
E|---------------|---------------|----3---33-----|--3-3-3---3-3-3-|
B|--3-2-3-5-3-3--|--2-3-5-3-2-2--|----3---33-----|--3-3-3---3-3-3-|
G|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|----0---00-----|--0-0-0---0-0-0-|
D|---------------|---------------|----5---55-----|--5-5-5---5-5-5-|
A|---------------|---------------|---------------|----------------|
D|---------------|---------------|---------------|----------------|

         D               A               G               G
   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4
E|---------------|---------------|----3---33-----|--3------------|
B|--3-2-3-5-3-3--|--2-3-5-3-2-2--|----3---33-----|--3------------|
G|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|----0---00-----|--0------------|
D|---------------|---------------|----5---55-----|--5------------|
A|---------------|0--------------|---------------|---------------|
D|0--------------|---------------|5--------------|---------------|

(play previous 8 measures over all verses
varying the rhythm in measures 4 and 8)

                 D                 A                          G         G
If you  could...fill a veil with shells from Killiney's shore
     D                   A                 G             G
And sweet talk in a tongue that is no more


        A                G                A                G
  1   2   3   4    1   2   3   4    1   2   3   4    1   2   3   4
E|----------------|3---------------|----------------|---------------|
B|------2---------|3---------------|------2---------|------3-3------|
G|--2-------2---2-|0---------------|--2-------2---2-|----0----------|
D|----2-------2---|----------------|----2-------2---|--5------------|
A|0---------------|----------------|0---------------|---------------|
D|----------------|5---------------|----------------|5--------------|
And if wishful thoughts could bridge The Gulf of Araby between

G    D     D    A     A    G
what is,   what is,   what is

And what can never be


        D               A               G               G
  1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4
E|---------------|---------------|---------------|----------------|
B|--3-2-3-5-3-3--|--2-3-5-3-2-2--|----3----------|----------------|
G|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|----0---00-----|0-0-0-0-0-0-----|
D|---------------|---------------|----5---55-----|5-4-2-4-2-0h2-0-|
A|---------------|0--------------|---------------|----------------|
D|0--------------|---------------|5--------------|----------------|

        D               A               G               G
  1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4
E|---------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
B|--3-2-3-5-3-3--|--2-3-5-3-2-2--|----3-3--------|---------------|
G|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|--2-2-2-2-2-2--|----0-0--------|---------------|
D|---------------|---------------|----5-5--------|---------------|
A|---------------|0--------------|---------------|---------------|
D|0--------------|---------------|5--------------|---------------|

If you could hold the frozen flow of New Hope Creek
And hide out from the one they said you might meet
And if you could unlearn all the words
That you never wanted heard
If you could stall the southern wind
That's whistling in your ears
You could take what is, what is, what is
To what can never be


D                  A                    G

   (be sure that low D rings during heavier
    D strumming through chorus ...grrr)


CHORUS
D                A
  One man of seventy whispers free at last
G
  Two neighbors who are proud of their massacres
D                      A
  Three tyrants torn away in a winter's month
G
  Four prisoners framed by a dirty judge
D
  Five burned with tyres
A
Six men still inside
    G                  G
And seven more days to shake at the great divide


(X2) The Gulf, the Gulf of Araby


Well, we would plough and part the earth to bring you home
And harvest every miracle ever known
And if they laid out all the things
That these ten years were to bring
We would gladly give them up
To bring you back to us
O, there is nothing we would not give
To kiss you and to believe we could take
what is, what is, what is
To what can never be


D         A         G


One man of seventy whispers not free yet
Two neighbors who make up knee-deep in their dead
Three tyrants torn away in the summer's heat
Four prisoners lost in the fallacy
Five, on my life
And six, I'm dead inside
And seven more days to shake at the great divide


(X2) The Gulf, the Gulf of Araby