Chalkhills: Reel by Real: XTC: "Leisure"

l e i s u r e
aaaaa    s you see, science once again robs  us  of our jobs
    aa   they've put a micro-chip in my place, I hide behind
 aaaaaa  screen of aggression  nowadays it's just  a way  of
aa   aa  saving  some   face,    so   now   I'm  permanently
 aaaa aa drunk  like the  rest   of  the race  with  leisure
if you  think I'm clowning  I assure you  that I'm  drowning
here  in leisure  they   taught  me  how  to  work but  they
can't  teach me  how  to shirk correctly.   I spend all  day
and all  my  allowance on t.v.  games   --- amusement heaven
at  the flick of a  switch.  instead of a lathe  I busy   my
fingers  nowadays  by scoring   goals   with  the   gentlest
twitch. I've  forgotten how  to  use  my  legs to invade the
pitch  leisure if   you think I'm   clowning I  assure   you
that  I'm  drowning here in leisure they  taught me how   to
work but they can't teach me how to shirk correctly.
they had retired me 'fore I  left school (just  saw no point
in the standing in line) so I  spend lots  of  time lounging
at home (why  not  come in 'cos   the carpet is  fine)  what
a waste of breath it  is searching for  the jobs that  don't
exist. so  now  I'm permanently   drunk  like  the  rest  of
the  race  with   leisure  if  you  think  I'm  clowning   I
assure you  that I'm drowning here in   leisure they  taught
me how to  work  but   they can't  teach   me how  to  shirk
correctly.   (Lazybones, looking through The Sun,  how'd you
ever 'spect to get your days work?)

andy - lead  and backing  vocals, electric guitar,  alto sax.
colin-fender  bass,  backing   vocals  dave-electric guitars
and backing vocals terry-drums      composed by a. partridge

Notes

Mick Casey: “‘Lazybones’, written by Hoagy Carmichael. . . More importantly, [Andy Partridge] sings, ‘Lazybones, Looking through The Sun, how'd you ever expect to get [your day's work]’. (For our American friends — The Sun is a UK tabloid newspaper, particularly detested for a number of reasons by most people with IQs over 50.) What a perfect way to sum-up the song!”

Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:09:52 +0100
From: Jordi Ibáñez Llauradó <lohagoporelmessenger (at) hotmail dot com>
Subject: xtc songs
Message-ID: <BAY113-F11D978375E7EAC7A754B66DA390 (at) phx dot gbl>

OK, my first posting. please be gentle. i just want to say that
that's been done with no keyboard or organ at hand, so i can't
be more precise about the chords. that's why here you'll only
find the basic chords: it's up to you, people that can write,
read and dissect chords, to finish this work. so here it goes,
all the songs in the XTC catalogue that hadn't been tabbed in
this great site, from "black sea" to "nonsuch". you won't find
anything from "mummer" because the whole album has already been
"chorded" in this site.

don't expect any riffs or arpeggios, BTW. that's as far as my
skills go...

maybe i should be ashamed to post something like this (so
incomplete, wrong and childish) but it's just for the sake of
people who just want to strum XTC songs and sing and don't care
much if this is a sus4, added or other bollocks chord (and i must
point that i am one of those who really care, so i'm willing to
read all kinds of comments and corrections). please, john relph,
erase every transcription of mine as soon as a proper tab of each
song made by any other XTC fan who's more trained on guitar than me
comes to your mail.

songs like "the somnambulist" or "seagulls..." were meant to be
played on keyboards and sound terrible on guitar. beware!

LEISURE
intro: Bb-Am-Gm-F#
verse: G-F-Am-G#
bridge (first "so now i'm permanently..."): G-F#-F
"leeeeisure": F
middle 8: F-Bb-C# and then G-Bm-D#m-D

--
hope that will be useful for somebody.
merry Xmas!
feedback welcome at jordiibanez (at) mixmail dot com
                 or lohagoporelmessenger (at) hotmail dot com

Leisure

Recordings

Art

Lyrics

Chords and Tablature