Song: Night on the Town

[ng_moonmoth]

Posting this here as part of participating in a filk song swap.

This post contains a lyric sheet with chords, a studio track of an arrangement I sequenced and a bitmap copy of the sheet music. I will be happy to send PDFs of the sheet music or lyric sheet to anyone who would like them.

 
    G           D           C             G
The bright neon sign in the window read, “Beer”,
   C                  G     Am7
So I went through the door.
    Am     Em   D7        G     D   Em
The tables were ricketty, dirty and sticky,
         C       D            G     B
Crumpled napkins littered the floor.

    Em           D       C          Em
The servers were smoking out in the back,
    Am               B    Em
The band was bad and loud.
           Am                   B
And if you wanted to get to the bar for a drink,
              Em      A7        Em
You'd have to brave a five-deep crowd.

     G                                D
As I turned to leave, someone said to me,
       G               Bm           C      Am
“I can tell this isn't your kind of place.
          Em   D C            Bm     Am     G
How'd you like to go to a beer garden that I know?
   Am       Bm7          G
It might be more to your taste.”


“Come follow me,” he said, and he went outside,
And ambled down the street.
I quickly bailed and got on his tail –
A beer garden sounded neat.

The sign on the gate read “Arboretum”,
He went in just the same.
He said “This sign makes it clear there are gardens here,
And that is why we came.”

“Dr. Maegju's a microbiologist,
And he tends a garden plot.
He's really keen to give plants new genes –
Let's see just what he's got.”


“He started with succulents and bamboo
And other things I can't tell,
Then added genes to his crop from barley and hops,
And yeast, and he watered it well.

“Yet his genetic recipe
Was missing one last trick,
Which he finally got past when he added at last
Pyracantha for the kick.

“There's lots of lights up here in front,
And the darks in the back are ample,
There's specialty brews in the corners, too,
When they're brown, they're ready to sample.”

CHORUS:

    G                   C
Oh, There's a fine beer garden
            G     Bm     Am   D
Like you've never seen before,
     F        Am        D
With towering stalks of green and brown
        G                            B7
Holding many fine brews you can pour.

          C                               Dm       G
There's a green one in the corner marked “Three-Oh-Seven',
      D     G     D7  F#m     C
And a dark, thick one labeled “Stout”,
      G                                 Bm
And a basket of taps you drive into the stalks
           D        D7     G
So you can draw the nectar out.


“He crossbred a whole bunch of different strains,
And lots of them came out nice.
But there were just a few that barely grew:
The ones that used corn and rice.

”The number we'd tried crept into the teens,
Our pace began to slow.
More time went by, then at last I sighed,
“I think that we should go.”

The sign on the card read “Do Not Disturb”,
As I hung it on the door.
I thought I might get to the bed that night –
and soon I thought no more.

CHORUS

When I finally woke the next morning,
I was lying on the floor, not the bed,
With a mouth that tasted like last week's trash,
And a road construction project in my head.

The ringing in my ears sounded worse than the band,
My eyes were red and ripe,
Which made it clear that the garden's beer
Fell far short of its hype.

Still I got clean, and I got dressed,
And to the Arboretum went with a will,
But though I've raced all around that place,
I'm seeking that garden still.

CHORUS
Repeat CHORUS ("Yes, there's a fine beer garden")