Black Sheep Boy Chords Guitar Tab

Black Sheep Boy Tabs:

Black Sheep Boy »
For Real
A Stone
So Come Back, I Am Waiting

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
D      A       Bm
Here I am back home again
A
And I’m here to rest
D        A      Bm
All they ask is where I’ve been
A                 D    A
Knowing I’ve been west -
Bm               A
I’m the family’s unknown boy
G                D
Golden curls and envy hair
D      A          Bm
Pretty girls with faces fair
A                    D
See the shine in the black sheep boy -
D     A        Bm
If you love me let me live in peace
A
And please understand
D        A               Bm
That the black sheep can wear the golden fleece
A                    D    A
And hold the winning hand
Bm               A
I’m the family’s unknown boy
G                D
Golden curls and envy hair
D      A          Bm
Pretty girls with faces fair
A                    D     A
See the shine in the black sheep boy -
Bm               A
I’m the family’s unknown boy
G                D
Golden curls and envy hair
D      A          Bm
Pretty girls with faces fair
A                    D
See the shine in the black sheep boy -
enjoy!
tabbed by uninvited guest

Source: GuitarMasta.net
http://www.guitarmasta.net/o/okkervil_river/.html

Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques


No Picture Bobby Wanna Be	#1 by Bobby Warneke at Sep 28, 2007 at 4:19 PM EST
	the song may have some strong reference to molestation or rape, but i dont really see how the father comes into play. i think it could be simply be a boyfriend that did something like that to her, and he moved on and now has a family..

No Picture Squats Average	#2 by Squats at Sep 28, 2007 at 8:15 PM EST
	I'm pretty sure there's a mistake in the lyrics. I think it is supposed to be: 'Or I’d call some black men, I'd fuck up his new life where they don’t know what he did' They got the best line of the song wrong!

No Picture Dunnie Average	#3 by Dunnie at Sep 29, 2007 at 4:03 AM EST
	Probably my favourite Okkervil song. I think the meaning is that someone he cares for was sexually molested by her father and he wants to take revenge.

No Picture Ahhma Average	#4 by Ahhma Yomamma at Sep 30, 2007 at 1:06 AM EST
	hmm thats interesting the album is named after a song they didnt write? lovely song

No Picture Tyler Wanna Be	#5 by Tyler Swagar at Oct 1, 2007 at 10:03 AM EST
	You're wrong, blahblahblahBatman. Your rationale really doesn't make sense, either. Couldn't that line just as easily support the most likely theory (molestation)? The "door" is symbolic of trust, etc. It was open; now it's closed. Her naivety and innocence is gone.

No Picture jo_silverhawk Average	#6 by jo_silverhawk at Oct 2, 2007 at 11:17 AM EST
	I don't think the song is about sexual abuse. I see nothing to imply that. In fact, the fact that he has a new wife and another child and they still won't go get him in trouble speaks against this theory. It would be irresponsible, almost criminally so, to allow a child molester to foster another child. I just think her dad was a scumbag and left. It's more a song about abandonment, in my mind. I could be off, though.

No Picture sean Wanna Be	#7 by sean bradly at Oct 3, 2007 at 12:28 AM EST
	Gita's interpretation is valid. The lyrics are vague in the sense that nobody know what happened to Cyna Moore that affected her.

No Picture Ashley Rhythm Player	#8 by Ashley 666 at Oct 4, 2007 at 12:48 AM EST
	could this song be any more catchy? ya. i agree with that person. something like, his girlfriend's dad raped her and she's all "oh but just forget it" and hes like "FKJSFHKEUFID KIIILLL"

No Picture kyle Badass	#9 by kyle .,., at Oct 4, 2007 at 1:26 AM EST
	yes. amazing song...the theme is so so horrible yet the beat is so so upbeat and awesome...i love it.

No Picture nathan Average	#10 by nathan skidmore at Oct 4, 2007 at 2:48 AM EST
	the summer before last i drove around for a few hours with the song on repeat. will sheff's voice is enough to knock me dead. i guess it's pretty obvious to me that this song is about molestation.

No Picture Jeremy Average	#11 by Jeremy Rees at Oct 4, 2007 at 5:17 AM EST
	Okkervil River has a thing for writing incredible opening tracks to their albums. The concept to this whole album is genious worthy.

No Picture brad Average	#12 by brad everett at Oct 4, 2007 at 1:41 PM EST
	this so is soo good it gives me shivers, makes me happy for how good it is, but makes me want to cry because it is just so SAD!!! i can relate to this situation (not personally). i do definatley think that's is about some sort of molestation or rape. (if not i think it's about hearbreak in general.. but not likely..) its just so blatetly OBVIOUS that it's about a rape. about a father raping a girl, a long time ago. This girl then grew up.. and she told her current boyfriend about what happened to her on 'April 12'. it's so sad because the boyfriend wants to help her so badly.. and he can see how she must have been so happy before it happend: 'but I can still see where you loved yourself before he tore it all down.' and then the father came and violated her an ruined any happiness that she had. The boyfriend is just so angry because of how powerless he feels in this situation and 'useless'.. he wants the girl to get back at her father.. wants her to take revenge.. he thinks that the situation might be better if she humiliated him. 'you should wreck his life the way that he wrecked yours' I think the boyfriend wants so badly for his girlfriend to feel like she has dignity, but the girls wants to 'forget it'.. she doesn't want to lose her dignity in facing her father.. shes afraid.. she doesnt want anymore to do with it. i know a girl who got raped.. she didnt want to tell anyone.. it's so frustrating, like this song, because you want so badly to help.. to get revenge on the stupid fuckhead who did it, but she just wants to forget it.. wants to put the situation behind her. now she just takes drugs all the time to forget it. its so awful how someone can completely ruin somebody else's life forever.. just from one single event.. can stip away somebodies dignity, pride, love, everything. and then just leave all this hurt behind and get away with it!!! however this song is interpreted, its brilliant. this is just my meaning.. great song.

No Picture NIK Average	#13 by NIK blaszczyszyn at Oct 6, 2007 at 7:37 AM EST
	from jamisonlikewhat.com: “Black” is a fluff-pop explosion of the most potent kind: theatric, runny-egg organs, bleeding-heart bass via the decade of 1980, pre-chorus build-ups worthy of WHAM!, themselves– one could mistake it for a bastard Cure b-side, were the whole ordeal not held in check by the delicious alt-country yelp of Dr. Will Sheff, Okkervil River’s primary singer/songwriter. The saying goes that all the best cowboys have daddy issues and Sheff does the next best thing in their absence: Finds a girlfriend with a couple, “But if I could tear his throat/ Spill his blood between my jaws/ And erase his name for good/ Don’t you know that I would.” No, you’re not about to download the new Slayer record– in fact, a casual listen doesn’t even disclose Sheff’s lyrical lynchings; such an infectious melody is rarely employed for singing about anything besides sunshine and lollipops. The stark contrast between sound and verse does serve to amplify the grievous wrongs done, though, and besides, for all Sheff’s barking, his gal seems to have put it behind her, “Don’t lose me now/ I’ll help you out/ Though I know I’m not useful anyhow/ Just let me stick around.” I wish I could write about how this song isn’t as morbid as I’m making it sound. I can’t. It’s an up-tempo funeral dirge about feeling useless, inept, and bitter while taking a stroll down Sesame Street– everything has gone to shit, but hey, the weather’s nice.

No Picture Vinny Average	#14 by Vinny Spano at Oct 7, 2007 at 6:07 AM EST
	Note, that this song is a cover, the original version is by singer/songwriter Tim Hardin. William of Okkervil River says about the circumstances this song was written in: "I already loved Hardin's music but I didn't know much about his life, so I started flipping through the liner notes for the box set and I learned that Hardin had written "Black Sheep Boy" while visiting his family back in his hometown of Eugene, OR. During the visit, an old friend offered heroin to Hardin, an ex-junkie who had been clean for several years. Hardin started using again and, as I understand it, didn't really stop until 1980, when he died of an overdose." To put things into perspective I recommend reading: http://www.jound.com/okkervil/blacksheepboystory.html or even more: http://www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/said_the_guests_will.php

No Picture Jake Average	#15 by Jake Bounds at Oct 9, 2007 at 7:52 AM EST
	lol, internet wars.

No Picture Dylan Average	#16 by Dylan Donovan at Oct 9, 2007 at 10:39 AM EST
	This song is so awesome. It's angry, but not in a stupid way.

No Picture Subhash Average	#17 by Subhash Shady at Oct 9, 2007 at 3:48 PM EST
	Because of the line "the door was open, but it is now closed", the song is about a girl who's boyfriend or something who knocked her up and abandoned her and the child leaving her life fucked up.

No Picture PJVILL Professional Badass	#18 by PJVILL at Oct 9, 2007 at 8:19 PM EST
	This song is so wonderful because I can truly hear his anguish as he wails out the lyrics. Not only that, but I can picture him writing this song after his friend/girlfriend told him all about this and he had no idea what to do. Jamisonlikewhat analyzes the song interestingly, but I don't think the catchy melody is meant to be misleading; I think it actually conveys the power, the drive, and the desperation of the song. Oftentimes very catchy, creative tunes come from deep deep anguish, and I think that's what happens here. And this song most definitely IS about molestation. A lyric no one has mentioned yet is "But I can still see the cigarette's heat." What comes to mind is either her father had a cigarette after raping her in the car or he burned her with a cigarette. Probably the latter, in my opinion. One lyric I'm not sure I get is, "You should say his name the way that he said yours." Maybe that he always refered to her as a whore and a slut and insulted her and she should do the same back to him. "You don't want to say his name anymore" probably means she just wants to push it away and not think about it, just like she wants to push him away.

No Picture Dr. Jack Average	#19 by Dr. Jack at Oct 11, 2007 at 9:04 AM EST
	The song (and obviously, the whole album) is about being a total fuck up, but you can still be a beautiful person no matter of your hide ("And theres plenty of ways to wear his hide, tonight" and "...the black sheep can wear the golden fleece, And hold a winning hand").

No Picture Nic Rhythm Player	#20 by Nic F at Oct 12, 2007 at 1:56 AM EST
	lol, fags.

No Picture Dale :D Average	#21 by Dale :D O' Mondo Of DOOM!!! at Oct 13, 2007 at 4:07 AM EST
	Gita, that is not true. This song is obviously about a father who molested his daughter.

No Picture dylan Average	#22 by dylan pesino at Oct 14, 2007 at 11:30 AM EST
	In response to jamisonlike what's initial comment: "In fact, the fact that he has a new wife and another child and they still won't go get him in trouble speaks against this theory. It would be irresponsible, almost criminally so, to allow a child molester to foster another child." It says right in the lyrics that the father's new family doesn't know about his past. "Or I’d call, some black midnight,/fuck up his new life where they don’t know what he did"

No Picture Punk Rock Princ Wanna Be	#23 by Punk Rock Princess at Oct 14, 2007 at 10:25 PM EST
	I pretty much signed up so I could say this. I was talking to a friend (she played this song for me, I had never heard of the band before) and she was telling me about how she (or perhaps a friend of hers) went to see Okkervil River, and they played this song and explained it a little bit. For the sake of making this easy to follow, I've given the following people names. A friend of the band (Mike) and his girlfriend (Christine) were watching the news, and the Christine's ex-longtime boyfriend (Case) was on it, promoting a book or something, and he was talking about how much he loved his wife and new kids and how much they helped him and how he'd never be the guy he was without him, and he never once mentioned Christine. Apparently, at one point, Case broke Christine's heart. She's really upset, and Mike has no idea how to deal with it, because Case was her first love, and she can't really hate him the way he does, she's too busy trying to forget and/or not be heartbroken. Simultaneously, Mike is trying to get her to love him as much as she loved Case, but he knows that isn't possible. He trying to be there for her, but that also hurts him, because by acknowloedging how much she loved Case, it puts a wall (or door!) between them. Take in mind that a) I heard this through a couple friends and b) I TOTALLY JUST PULLED THOSE NAMES OUT OF MY ASS, I HAVE NO IDEA IF THIS IS TRUE OR NOT. When I heard this song, I never heard molestation in it at all, and while that's a valid interpretation, I saw it as more along the lines of like, you love somebody so much you'd kill someone that fucked their life up and broke their heart, even if they don't want it. I guess that applies to the molestation interpretation as well, but that meaning seems really specific to me. Like, I can see how everyone got that, but I don't feel it was explicitely written in the song. Or maybe I always just take the more general meaning of the song rather than the super specific one. Who knows!

No Picture Super Average	#24 by Super Q at Oct 15, 2007 at 6:36 AM EST
	I really really like this song, regardless of the meaning of the lyrics it is so frickin catchy and fun to listen to. I agree that the song is about his girlfriend/someone else he cares about was sexually abused by their father and she just tells him to forget it, not to worry about it, but he wants to get the father back and can't let what happened to the girl go.

No Picture camilo Average	#25 by camilo velasquez at Oct 15, 2007 at 6:41 AM EST
	I'm pretty sure there's no mistake

No Picture Chad Wanna Be	#26 by Chad Barri at Oct 15, 2007 at 11:20 AM EST
	lovely indeed

No Picture Jp Wanna Be	#27 by Jp Collins at Oct 15, 2007 at 3:14 PM EST
	Sure, it's valid, but a more valid interpretation might be what everyone else is saying about this song :) It sounds like Gita's story might be a little more applicable as a starting point for "Song About A Star".

No Picture Senour Average	#28 by Senour Dakota at Oct 15, 2007 at 9:47 PM EST
	jamisonlikewhat... what? not about molestation? are you in denial of the reality that fathers molest their children in general or just in this song? it points to molestion on almost every line of the song. first off, the entire first verse is alluding to one event, ONE EVENT on april 12th, that took place in a car (when NO ONE was around), one in which isn't named because perhaps it is too vulgar and disgusting to be named in the song. secondly, abandoning fathers are bad yes. it's a saddening and frustrating thing when a father leaves a mother to parent to raise a child, and truly that man IS a scumbag. but would that kind of behavior, do you honestly think, merit thoughts and wishes of a brutal and painful and graphic death? thirdly, yes it is almost criminal that they should allow this SCUM to foster another child, but it is ultimately the girl's decision over what to do here. and that's what makes this song's theme even more gut-wrenching.

No Picture Darren Wanna Be	#29 by Darren Pilton at Oct 16, 2007 at 10:33 AM EST
	Yeah, this is a great opening song.

No Picture Jon Badass	#30 by Jon Coath at Oct 17, 2007 at 11:34 AM EST
	I hate the fact that people are so resistant to the literal meanings of a song. Molestation is so obvious and so many points in the song support that is is about molestation. The line "where's your mother?" refers to the fact that the mother should have been there when the father took the girl where nobody was around. The most important line "I'll call some black midnight...tell his brand new wife and his second kid" tells of how the man disappeared after the molestation, left the girl's mother and started a new life with a new wife and a new child. Jamisonlikewhat, this can't be a song about abandonment because it wouldn't make sense for the father to drop by the house, put his daughter in the car and drop her off in some remote place in order to abandon her; he wouldn't go back to the house he would just hightail it when his wife wasn't around and the daughter was outside the house by herself.

No Picture zach Wanna Be	#31 by zach miles at Oct 18, 2007 at 7:03 AM EST
	I think there's even more to it than that. She isn't just saying "no forget it" she saying that she doesn't want to dignify what was done to her by responding to it. So while he's singing about making him pay for it, he's also proud that she won't let him get revenge. Or, uh, something like that.

No Picture paste your name Average	#32 by paste your name here at Oct 18, 2007 at 8:58 PM EST
	I'm pretty sure it's "I'm the family's unowned boy," but I could be wrong. Regardless, this is about being known as the family outcast, clearly, but returning home after having finally found some measure of success and trying to communicate that to your loved ones. My two cents, anyway. Pretty brlliant metaphor, if you ask me.