SONG: (A) Letter to Georgia
BAND: The Airborne Toxic Event
Q/C/C: email me: schm2213@umn.edu
Probably the prettiest song by this band to date. Absolutely heartwrenching.
NOTE: this is based on one particular live version. It is “Live at Birmingham Academy,”
in the UK on the 7th of November 2009. It was played during a set that is available for
download in its entirety (like an hour and a half long track) on the Airborne website.
I have seen this song performed live, and it was played slightly differently, and most
youtube clips I have seen all play it differently as well. Most versions I’ve seen he uses
a capo (sometimes 3, sometimes 4...); sometimes he plays D G A, sometimes G C D. I guess we
won’t know the official version until the studio version comes out, but this version, the one
I’ve downloaded from their website, is the prettiest version I’ve heard, so I’d suggest everyone
grab a copy of it.
If you have a different version somehow and you really like THAT version and it sounds slightly
different, then try messing around with a capo, or if worst comes to worst replace the chords
below with the following: D -> G, G -> C, A -> D, and move the capo around again.
LAST NOTE: The way I hear it (for this version; no capo, standard tuning), he (Mikel)
avoids the top e string a lot, emphasizing instead the unchanging note D on the B string
(3rd fret), like the tremolo. Sometimes he does play the e string, and sometimes, instead of
the D chord he plays Bm. It’s too hard to tell, and at this point it’s too irregular, to put
the Bm’s in this tab, so I’m just going to put D’s in and if you want to throw in the occasional
Bm go for it.
Song starts off with Anna’s (viola) tremolo on note D (8th fret, high e-string). Eventually, when
Steven (guitar) begins mimicking, he tremolo’s in a similar pattern. It’s pretty much (top e
string): 8 8 8 10 (in same time as chords below, trem each). Sometimes they go up to 12, and one
or both of them might add a second note via the B string.
Intro: (after lead-in trem from Anna)
x4
How can I explain to you
The picture of this avenue?
The rain falls on the street outside
My window on this Thursday afternoon
I sit alone inside
These sinful walls I've lived inside
So many lies I’ve lived and died
None so much as the one I’ve lived with you.
I see you on the highway
(G)
A thousand miles away
Rain falls through your hair and cheeks
Tears and mascara streaks
Your face reflected in the glass
Lines in the pavement go past
Just like the lines around your eyes
That held the weight of all these sad goodbyes
Interlude:
x 4
(I think the last time is Bm G D A...)
Everybody that I know
Tell me just to let it go
You run from everything, they say
Hurt the ones you love blindly
But here I sit and picture you
With fingers worn, your shirt torn through
Your heart's so big and broke in two
Your mind drifting through all you knew
Afraid to love, afraid to lose
Afraid to start, afraid to choose
Afraid to live, afraid to die
Afraid to let you days slip by
Afraid you’ll change or stay the same
Afraid we’ll lose ourselves again
Afraid of the truth that love
Could cause you so much pain
(D)
I know
I felt it, too
I know, I know
Darlin, I wish it wasn't true.
(end on D)