| C   | F   | C   | F   |

[Chorus]
C                         F
  I became a thin blue flame
C                         F
  Polished on a mountain range
C                             F
  And over hills and fields I flew
C                       Am
  Wrapped up in a royal blue

[Verse 1]
                   F
I flew over Royal City last night
                                 C
A bullfighter on the horns of a new moon’s light
                          F
Caesar’s ghost I saw the war-time tides
                                C
The prince of Denmark’s father still and quiet
                            F
The whole world was looking to get drowned
                                C
Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds
                                   F
I looked over curtains and it was then that I knew
                            C
That only a full house gonna make it through

[Chorus]
C                       F
  I became a thin blue wire
C                                F
  That held the world above the fire
C                        F
  And so it was I saw behind
C                           Am
  Heaven’s just a thin blue line

[Verse 2]
                            F
If God’s up there he’s in a cold dark room
                               C
The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons
                                   F
He bent down and made the world in seven days
                             C
And ever since he’s been a’walkin' away
                          F
Mixing with nitrogen in lonely holes
                           C
Where neither seraphim or raindrops go
                                 F
I see an old man wandering the halls alone
                             C           F
But only a full house gonna make a home

[Chorus]
C                          F
  But I became a thin blue stream
C                              F
  The smoke between asleep and dreams
C                              F
  And in that clear blue undertow
C                         Am
  I saw Royal City far below

[Verse 3]
                        F
Borders soft with refugees
                             C
Streets a’swimming with amputees
                                            F
It’s a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart
                                    C
It’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart
                              F
The days are nights and the nights are long
                             C
Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs
                                            F
And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign
                                           C
Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine
                                  F
Now the dogs are howling at our door
                                       C
Singing bout vengeance like it’s the joy of the Lord
                                        F
Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round
                                       C
They’re guilty when killed and they’re killed where they’re found
                                  F
If what’s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high
                                    C
It’s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die
                                 F
Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please
                             C
The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees
                                F
Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage
                                C
Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage
                              Am
Lead pellets peppering aluminum
                          C
Halcyon, laudanum and Opium
                                  Am
Sings kiss thee hardy this poisoned cup
                          C
His winding sheet is busy winding up
                             Am
In darkness he looks for the lights that have died
                                                   C
But you need faith for the same reasons that it’s so hard to find
                                    Am
And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck
                              G
And like good tragedy that’s what we expect

| C   | F   | C   | F   |
| C   | F   | C   | Am  |

[Verse 4]
                             F
At night I make plans for a city laid down
                                C
Like the hips of a girl on the spring covered ground
                              F
Spirals and capitals like the twists of a script
                                    C
Streets named for heroes that could almost exist
                                  F
The fruit trees of Eden and the gardens that seem
                                 C
To float like the smoke from the lithium dream
                             F
Cedar trees growing in the cool of the squares
                                C
The young women walking in the portals of prayer
                                        F
And the future glass buildings and the past an address
                                     C
And the weddings in pollen and the wine bottomless
                                 F
And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right
                           C
The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night
                             Am
The future descending like a bright chandelier
                                      G
And the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer
                      Am
In Royal City I fell into a trance
                                       G
Oh it’s hell to believe there ain’t a hell of a chance

| Am  | G   | Am  | G   |
| Am  | G   | Am  | G   |
| C   | F   | C   | F   |

[Chorus]  
C                              F
  I woke beneath a clear blue sky
C                              F
  The sun a shout the breeze a sigh
C                                   F
  My old hometown and the streets I knew
C                              Am
  Were wrapped up in a royal blue

[Verse 5]  
                                 F
I heard my friends laughing out across the fields
                                  C
The girls in the gloaming and the birds on the wheel
                                  F
The raw smell of horses and the warm smell of hay
                             C
Cicadas electric in the heat of the day
                                  F
A run of Three Sisters and the flush of the land
                                   C
And the lake was a diamond in the valley’s hand
                                    F
The straight of the highway and the scattered out hearts
                               C
They were coming together they pulling apart
                               F
And angels everywhere were in my midst
                                C
In the ones that I loved in the ones that I kissed
                                  F
I wondered what it was I’d been looking for up above
                                  C
Heaven is so big there ain’t no need to look up
                                F
So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air
                          C
Only a full house gonna have a prayer