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Shining in the window a guitar that wasn't wood |////|F#m/E///|A///|E///|
It was looking like a silver coin from when they still were good |////|E7///|Gm/E/F#m/E/|E///|
The man who kept the music shop was pleased to let me play |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
Although the price was twenty times what I could ever pay |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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Pick it up and feel the weight and weigh the feel |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
That thing is an authentic National Steel |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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A lacy grille across the front and etchings on the back |////|F#m/E///|A///|E///|
But the welding sealed a box not even Bukka White could crack |////|E7///|Gm/E/F#m/E/|E///|
I tuned it to an open chord, picked up the nickel slide |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
And bottlenecked a blues that sounded cold yet seemed to glide |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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The National Steel weaves a singing shroud |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
Just as sure as men in winter breathe a cloud |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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Scrapper Blackwell, Blind Boy Fuller and Blind Blake |////|F#m/E///|A///|E///|
Son House or any name you care to take |////|E7///|Gm/E/F#m/E/|E///|
And from many a sad railroad, mine or mill |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
Lonnie Johnson's bitter tears are in there still |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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Be certain, said the man, of who you are |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
There are dead men still alive in that guitar |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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Back there the next morning half demented by desire |////|F#m/E///|A///|E///|
For that storybook assemblage of heavy plate and wire |////|E7///|Gm/E/F#m/E/|E///|
I sold half the things I valued but I'll never count the cost |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
While I can pick a note like broken bracken in the frost |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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And I hear those fabled names becoming real |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
Every time I feel the weight or weigh the feel |A///|Am7///|E///|////|
Of the vanished years inside my National Steel |A///|B///|Am7/D/A/|E///|
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