The Person You Are Lyrics

T H E P E R S O N Y O U A R E
by John Wesley Harding
from the album "The Name Above The Title"
Key: G major
INTRO: G D C D
I put my forehead to the door
I heard the famous sound of infidelity
Looks like I've loved and lost once more
Oh, but all's fair in love and war, supposedly
I couldn't even burst in on you
See scrabbling sheets or your excuse
Give you the evil eye or verbal abuse
Why do you do what you do \
When the things that you do |- PLAY & SING TWICE
Hurt the person you are? /
RIFF A: G D C D G D C D
I slammed my glass down on the bar
My problems, they hit the floor so gracefully
I don't know where I parked the car
That's okay; tonight I'm on the town without me
Tonight it's just me and my evil twin
The one who slips one more drink in
The one who slips away when I start sinking
Why do you do what you do \
When the things that you do |- PLAY & SING TWICE
Hurt the person you are? /
They hurt the person you are
The person you are
The person you are
The person you are
RIFF B: G D C D G D C D
Got a job to pay the rent
Put people out of work by repositioning
Now no-one's sitting on the fence
Whose garden will we end up sitting in?
It's getting much to hard to heal the sky
It stings too much to open up our eyes
To fundamental truths that we hold as lies
Why do you do what you do \
When the things that you do |- PLAY & SING FOUR TIMES
Hurt the person you are? /
They hurt the person you are
The person you are
The person you are
The person you are
The person............... person............... person...... yeay.
OUTRO ON LEAD GUITAR
-- T H E E N D --
L E A D G U I T A R T A B S
I N T R O
||--R----10--8-10--8--7--8-|--------7--8-10----------|--------8---------------|
||--S----------------------|-------------------------|------------------------|
||--T----------------------|-------------------------|------------------------|
R I F F B
|--R----10--8-10--8--7--8-|--------7--8-10----------|--------8----------------|
|--S----------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
|--T----------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
|--------8----------10----|--R----10--8-10--8--7--8-|--------7--8-10----------|
|-------------------------|--S----------------------|-------------------------|
|-------------------------|--T----------------------|-------------------------|
|--------8----------------|--7--7--R----------------|
|-------------------------|--------S----------------|
|-------------------------|--------T----------------|
O U T R O
|--R----10--8-10--8--7--8-|--------7--8-10----------|--------8----------------|
|--S----------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
|--T----------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|
|--------8----------10----|--R----10--8-10--8--7--8-|--------7--8-10----------|
|-------------------------|--S----------------------|-------------------------|
|-------------------------|--T----------------------|-------------------------|
O P T I O N A L R H Y T H M G U I T A R P A R T F O R R I F F A
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Normally played on piano)
G ^ D ^ C
D ^ ^ h G ^ D ^
|-------------------------|--2------------------------| This section was
|--1----------------------|--3------------------------| invented by me
|--0----------------------|--2------------------------| around the part
|--2----------------------|--0------------------------| played with the
|--3-----2-----0----------|---------------------------| piano at this
|--------------------3----|---------------------------| point in Wes's
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . recording.
* `^' means downstroke, `h' means hammer-on.
* In the 4th bar of this section, the 3rd beat and it's half-beat can
either be played using the hammer-on to the treble note as shown above
(in which case the chord on the 3rd beat becomes Dsus2), which is one
of my personal favourite colourings, or the normal D fingering can be
retained, with a downstroke on the 3rd beat and an upstroke on the
following half-beat.
* Don't worry unduly about playing only those strings shown in the tabs
when doing downstrokes with your plectrum or thumb. In particular the
C chord strums are shown with the treble-E string not played, but this
isn't always easy to get right, so don't worry, be happy :-)
* A reasonably flexible but reasonably firm pick/plectrum is best if you
want to do this riff (IMHO).
G E N E R A L N O T E S
1. If you are playing solo, then the most important thing is to keep up
the rhythm and chords, so you can forget the lead guitar solo parts.
I like to use the last 4 bars of the OPTIONAL RHYTHM PART FOR RIFF A
as my intro, and obviously stick to the RIFF A after the first verse,
using it again after the second verse, where the recording has RIFF B.
In place of the OUTRO, I just strum the chords of the rhythm guitar
part, allowing the words (person... person... person... yeay) to hold
the flow of the ending, and then finish with a flourish.
2. As always, learn the rhythm of the song from the recording.
3. Enjoy!
C h O R D S
G chord D chord
or don't play bass-E string
C chord Em chord