Standing On First Base chords by Tim Keller

SimplifiedC · G · F

GuitarPianoUkulele

Verse 1
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Last spring, up in Pecos, New Mexico,
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the town nearest to where I live,
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there was a baseball team was practicing for
the regional championships for the state,
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when one of the storms comes in out of the Sangre
de Cristo mountains in the afternoons,
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came over and there was lightning,
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and lightning struck one of the ball players,
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one of the high school boys,
struck him while he was standing
on first base.
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I didn't think about writing
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this next song
until about three or four weeks later,
I was standing under a cold shower
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in the last day of the Kerrville Folk
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Festival
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and the idea of this song came to me
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as ideas will come to you
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in a cold shower. Um...
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And in the meantime I had been down in Houston,
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I'd toured around a little bit
during the festival
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and I'd been down in Houston
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watching a friend's TV set
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during some of the instant  replays
coming out of Tiananmen Square.
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So this song ended up being about a young man
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dying in Tiananmen Square
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another young man dying in Pecos,
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New Mexico.
It's a song about living,
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a song called Standing
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on First Base.
Lightning broke the three o 'clock bell,
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the buses scurried home,
left Roy there on first base
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like it was his own
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the batter took a practice swing
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the blackest cloud
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his aim roy rose off of first base
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flickered like a flame
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the diamond turned as black as coal
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The wind -up and the pitch
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And just before the storm came down
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Roy knew he wouldn't miss
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And there before the final crack
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You should have seen his face
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What finer time to be struck down
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Than standing on first base
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Take me when you take me,
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take me right there in my tracks.
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Take me from the middle of the race.
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Take me when I won't be sitting still
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or looking back.
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What finer time to be struck down
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than standing on first base
In our dark and finest hour,
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beneath a burning glare
The tanks all marching on their
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way into Tiananmen Square
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He stood alone in anger,
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raised his fist and never shrank.
Batman may have stopped a war,
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but he didn't stop that tank.
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Oh, that death would strike me down
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in the middle of my game.
Take me when I'm most alive,
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turn me into flame.
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Find me when I'm far from home,
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give me its embrace.
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What finer time to be struck down
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than standing on first base.
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Take me when you take me,
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take me right there in my tracks.
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Take me from the middle of the race.
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Take me when I won't be sitting still
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or looking back.
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What finer time to be struck down
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than standing on first base.
Tears fall from the storming sky
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for those it's left behind.
They'll just have to wait their turn
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and hope it's just as kind.
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If you stand in one place,
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you could die of thirst.
But when you run from home,
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your eyes are fixed on thirst.
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And those who won't run from a storm
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may not have much sense.
But they're the ones who know
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to reach beyond the outfield fence.
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And  there, before the final crack,
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you should have seen his face.
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What fighter, time to be struck down,
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but standing on first base.
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Take me, when you take me,
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take me right there in my tracks.
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Take me from the middle of the race
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Take me when I won't be sitting still
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or looking back
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What finer time to be struck down
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than standing on first base
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What finer time to be struck down
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than standing on first base.