Intro: Am 

                                         G             Am 
He was born in Miller's mansion when the mistress was asleep 
    C                 G               Am 
The secret son of the chambermaid and master 
                                       G                 Am 
And they sent him into hiding, for his schooling and his keep 
         C                G           Am 
With the Carlyles and the other lucky bastards 


Am                                       G               Am 
Now his toady tutors fawn and praise the man that he's become 
            C            G            Esus   E 
Though he's taken to the Laudanum and Faro  
       Am                                           G                     Am 
And he walks the streets like velvet death with his daddy's money on his breath 
      C               G                  Am 
And a shame he cannot shake, down in his marrow 


  

[Refrão]
     Am                               Dm 
When day fades to black, you must not listen to the killer 
       C               G             Esus   E 
Pretty voices keep you beautiful and bound  
           Am                          Dm 
'Cause the simple sorry fact of your existence, Preston Miller 
    F                   G             Am 
Is enough to bring this house of evil down 


Am                                   G                 Am 
One night upon some drunken dare, he writes his absent sire 
         C               G                 Am 
Saying, "Father, I would fain come home to meet thee" 
                                                G              Am 
And though his worthless friends guffaw at this sudden show of fire 
 C               G                Am 
Another round of bourbon and it's easy 


Am                                      G          Am 
And this letter finds his father in his tower far away 
        C               G                   Am 
And the hoary claw that holds it shakes and trembles  
      Am                             G  
Is it grief over a life misspent, or love or greed or mere contempt 
   C                G               Am 
Or something darker stirring in his temples 




[Refrão]
     Am                               Dm 
When day fades to black, you must not listen to the killer 
       C               G             Esus   E 
Pretty voices keep you beautiful and bound  
           Am                          Dm 
'Cause the simple sorry fact of your existence, Preston Miller 
    F                   G             Am 
Is enough to bring this house of evil down 


Am                                G               Am 
A week gone by, he's wakened by a knocking at his door 
       C                  G             Am 
And he drags himself half-wasted to the threshold 
                                             G                       Am 
It's a message in his father's quill saying, "Meet me, scion, if you will 
       C              G               Am 
At the very stroke of midnight in the meadow" 


Am                                       G              Am 
Now he has combed his laggard locks, and hired a comely roan 
         C               G               Esus       E 
And he's met his comrade fops around the fountain  
         Am                                    G             Am 
And he's bidden each a grand goodbye, and he's cantered off alone 
   C             G             Am 
To meet his aged father in the mountains 




[Refrão]
     Am                               Dm 
When day fades to black, you must not listen to the killer 
       C               G             Esus   E 
Pretty voices keep you beautiful and bound  
           Am                          Dm 
'Cause the simple sorry fact of your existence, Preston Miller 
    F                   G             Am 
Is enough to bring this house of evil down 


 Am                                     G             Am 
"Oh, Father dear, come out, come out, I honour thee tonight,"  
   C                 G              Am 
He shouts as he goes weaving in the saddle 
                                           G              Am 
He sees the stars go blinking by, like the twinkling in a trollop's eye 
        C             G            Am 
And six riders riding madly in the shadows 


Am                                  G               Am 
This morning sailed a ship of fools across a sea of gin 
       C                  G             Am 
With a blind and grinning Reaper at the tiller  
       Am                          G               Am 
And it drove an aging Jacob to his lone and bitter end 
      C                  G                Am 
And a bullet through the brain of Preston Miller