CHRONIC TOWN: 1,000,000

Lyrically this song was mostly solved with recently found lyric sheets.  However, I'm not going to get into what meaning might be behind the words as it is all speculation.  I had a friend once who thought it was about vampires, so I guess it's wide open.  As far as singing the following lyric, at many points it sounds like Stipe is saying "marker store" in fact, if you replace the word "stone" with "store" you get closer to the accent of Stipe's speech ... another option is holding out the long O sound and meeting the word "not."





1,000,000

Secluded in a marker store, not only deadlier but smarter too, smarter too
All among the tune, all among the ruin
Secluded in a marker store, not only deadlier but smarter too, smarter too

I could live a million
I could live a million
I could live a million
I could live a million years

Secluded in a marker store, not only deadlier but smarter too, smarter too
All among the tune, all along the ruin
Secluded in a marker store, not only deadlier but smarter too, smarter too

I could live a million
I could live a million
I could live a million
I could live a million years

All among, all among, all among the tune
Secret in, secret in, secret in the river

Secluded in a marker store, not only deadlier--smarter too, smarter too

I could live a million
I could live a million
I could live a million
I could live a million years



This is the first song that I learned off of Chronic Town years ago and was always disconcerted with what I discovered online, because the chorus always sounded wrong.  With this project I decided to get it right.  The cool part is that it is an early example of the open E and B strings Buck likes to use.  Apart from the bridges, the chords are fairly straightforward--just play them as power chords and accentuate the open E and B. 

A note about the hammer on the 7 and 9, just make sure it happens in rapid succession.  You can listen to the song for the example.  Also, I noted the open string before the hammer on the A note, but on the way from the E to the B chord experiment with a little openness on the transition.

1,000,000

Intro/Verse

e|-0--0--0---0----|

B|-0--0--0---0----|

G|-8--8--8---9h---|

D|-9--9--9---9----|

A|-9--0--7h--7----|

E|-7--0--0---0----|

Bridge/ Middle 8: x4

“All among …”

e|--0-----0---0---|

B|---0-----0------|

G|-6---6>8--8-----|

D|-7---7-9--9-----|

A|----------------|

E|----------------|

Chorus:

A-C#m-Bm-E

e|--0--0--0--0---0-0--|

B|--0--0--0--0---0-0--|

G|--6--6--4--1---2-1--|

D|--7--6--4--2---2-2--|

A|--7--4--2--2---2-2--|

E|--5--0--0--0---0-0--|

-BW