The Charm Of Innocence

      C                      D
I was born with the charm of innocence
      A           Bb
On my back like a cross
C                  D
Thorns upon my forehead
A               Bb
Round my neck I wore it
            C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
             E
Sometimes an albatross

     A                           C#m
It began at a school that turned boys into gentlemen
G                      Bm
Then turned them on to debauchery
      A                     C#m
I was forced to my knees in front of these gentlemen
G                       Bm
If I refused they would torture me
   A                       C#m
On Sundays I'd stalk the Botanical Garden
    G                 Bm
And under my uniform something would harden
   F                               E
Whenever I passed a girl of my own age

   A                    C#m
Or did it begin with au pair girls from Germany
G                        Bm
Paid by the hour to look after us?
A                      C#m
Did it begin with that first opportunity
   G                      Bm
To corner a stranger with nakedness?
A                  C#m
Maybe the clinical way they undressed me
G                   Bm
Stayed with me and deeply distressed me
F                                     E
I think, at heart, I'm something of a prude

      C                      D
I was born with the charm of innocence
      A           Bb
On my back like a cross
C                  D
Thorns upon my forehead
A               Bb
Round my neck I wore it
            C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
             E
Sometimes an albatross

A                  C#m
Then at eighteen I decided I wanted
   G                  Bm
To be a commercial photographer
   A              C#m
I rented a studio down by the docks
        G                      Bm
Which I shared with a friendly pornographer
  A                      C#m
I photographed models in fluorescent light
      G                            Bm
Whose veins were so blue and whose breasts were so white
     F                                    E
I assumed, like the moon, women were blue cheese

A                    C#m
When I left home I already had five years
   G                   Bm
Of self abuse under my belt
  A                         C#m
I found certain women who'd let me try anything
G                       Bm
Just to find out how it felt
        A                      C#m
In some garish hotel room with vile decoration
    G                      Bm
The wallpaper witnessed my first pollination
F                                 E
The paisley patterns witnessed an abortion

      C                      D
I was born with the charm of innocence
      A           Bb
On my back like a cross
C                  D
Thorns upon my forehead
A               Bb
Round my neck I wore it
            C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
             E
Sometimes an albatross

       A                      C#m
In the army they taught me to share the abuse
         G                      Bm
That I'd kept up 'til then to myself
        A
There's nothing like killing
    C#m                  G                     Bm
For coaxing a shy boy of twenty-one out of his shell
       A                     C#m
In the dark continent with a peace-keeping force
       G                    Bm
I fell in with a bunch of Algerian whores
F                                     E
And promised them I'd try and keep in touch

B                      Ebm
We met up again in the eighteenth arrondisement
A               C#m
I remember them well
      B                           Ebm
Their lank stringy hair and their big bulbous noses
      A            C#m
Their unmistakable smell
       B                      Ebm
I'd approach all the ugliest, seediest jerks
    A                       C#m
And ask them to keep a young model in work
G                                             F#
Some men, thank Christ, don't discriminate at all

      C                      D
I was born with the charm of innocence
      A           Bb
On my back like a cross
C                  D
Thorns upon my forehead
A               Bb
Round my neck I wore it
            C
Sometimes a rabbit's claw
             E
Sometimes an albatross

       A                    C#m
I will pass my old age by a pale two-bar fire
G                    Bm
Patiently waiting to die
A                         C#m
Twitching the lace as the schoolgirls go past
G                   Bm
Tracing a page of Bataille
    A                        C#m
And if you catch sight of my secondhand coat
G                         Bm
Leaving behind it a faint whiff of goat
         F                    E
Remember both of us are naked underneath

  B                             Ebm
I thought it would end with the first obscene phone call
    A                   C#m
The second professional kill
    B                        Ebm
But somehow detached from my actual behavior
     A                    C#m
This innocence burdens me still
B                 Ebm
Up in the attic I pick up the brush
 A                        C#m
Paint in the crow's feet, paint out the blush
    G                                 F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of
    G                                                F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of
    G         G/F#     G/E   G/F#     F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
    G         G/F#            G/E        G/F#        F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
    G         G/F#     G/E   G/F#     F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
    G         G/F#            G/E        G/F#        F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
    G         G/F#     G/E   G/F#     F#
The face this portrait is of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)
    G         G/F#            G/E        G/F#        F#
The face this portrait is supposed to be of is still capable of (Paint out the blush of shame)