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The National - Apartment Story Tabs

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Apartment Story Tabs

(ver. 3)
The National
This is my first tab. I watched their acoustic session
about a jillion times to figure out what
was going on and I tabbed it out for someone on

It is my first tab, so be gentle haha..
but I am 99.99999% sure that this is
100% accurate.. and if it isn't, it still
sounds gravy to do on an acoustic.
Put on a capo to adjust it to your voice
if you're going to play it solo.
Matt's vocals are hard to hit that low
if you're not as naturally bassy as he is.

I am way too lazy to tab out the amount
of strums, so I have provided the chords,
and if you know the song, figuring
out where the changes and strums
should be NO problem for you.

Here it is:

Verse:
e-x--------x-----x-x---x----/0-|
B-x--------x-----x-x---x----/0-|
G-4-------4-----4-4---9----/1--|
D-4-------2-----2-2---8----/2--|
A-2-------2-----2-4---/6----/2-|
E-2-------4-----4-4---/7----/0-|


Chorus:
e-2-----0-----x-----0-|
B-0-----0-----4-----5-|
G-4-----4-----x-----x-|
D-4-----4-----1----/2-|
A-x-----x-----2-----x-|
E-x-----x-----x-----0-|

Repeat verse

Repeat Chorus (play it twice, once for "Tired and wired"
and another for the "And I'll be behind the couch..")

Bridge: "stay inside till somebody finds us" (same as the verse)
e-x--------x-----x-x---x----/0-|
B-x--------x-----x-x---x----/0-|
G-4-------4-----4-4---9----/1--|
D-4-------2-----2-2---8----/2--|
A-2-------2-----2-4---/6----/2-|
E-2-------4-----4-4---/7----/0-|

second time, with the pause "for days we'll.."
this this time he plays it a little different to lead into the outro

e-x--------x-----x----x-|
B-x--------x-----x----x-|
G-9-------9-----4----4--|
D-8-------8-----4----2--|
A-6-------7-----2----2--|
E-7-------0-----2----4--|

"so worry not, all things are well..."
The outro starts at the end of the
word "not"... Aaron likes to drone the
open B so he just plays the chorus chords
with a slightly different structure to
achieve this. The B can be hard to accomplish
correctly as you need the open (e) string muted
but if you hold the chord right you can mute it
with the bottom of your index finger. He
plays this until the very end so you keep
playing it when it goes back into the
"Stay inside" and then back to the
"Worry not", at which point if you're
singing you go up an octave.

e-2------0-----x-----0-|
B-0------0-----0-----0-|
G-4------4-----4-----4-|
D-4------4-----1----/2-|
A-x------x-----2-----x-|
E-x------x-----x-----0-|

Ends on B:
e-x
B-0
G-4
D-4
A-2
E-x

Lyrics:

Be still for a second while I try and try to pin your flowers on
Can you carry my drink I have everything else
I can tie my tie all by myself
I'm getting tied, I'm forgetting why

Oh we're so disarming darling, everything we did believe
is diving diving diving diving off the balcony
Tired and wired we ruin too easy
sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave

Hold ourselves together with our arms around the stereo for hours
While it sings to itself or whatever it does
when it sings to itself of its long lost loves
I'm getting tied, I'm forgetting why

Tired and wired we ruin too easy
sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave
but I'll be with you behind the couch when they come
on a different day just like this one

We'll stay inside til somebody finds us
do whatever the TV tells us
stay inside our rosy-minded fuzz for days
We'll stay inside til somebody finds us
do whatever the TV tells us
stay inside our rosy-minded fuzz

so worry not
all things are well
we'll be alright
we have our looks and perfume

stay inside til somebody finds us
do whatever the TV tells us
stay inside our rosy-minded fuzz

so worry not
all things are well
we'll be alright
we have our looks and perfume on
            
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