Small Black Box

Written by Michael Penn, of course...

This song is absolutely, positively beautiful, saddening, and uplifting. I believe it was written with the TWA Flight 800 tragedy in mind. I hate to display my rendition of the song... I'm afraid any attempt at deciphering it would fail to do it any justice and/or would just take away from the natural beauty and simplicity of this wonderful song. So, with that said, please forgive me if I've taken away from any part of the song with this transcription. If you don't like it, I'm sorry. If you do, great. But more importantly, I hope you think of and thank Michael Penn for this eloquent and touching tune. And, most importantly, think of all the people he wrote it for.

Special Things to Note:

• First of all, I figured this song out with a capo on the 3rd fret. You don't have to do it this way, of course, but that's just how I did it.
• Here's a chord... I don't know what it's called... But you have to use it. I'll call it EmX.
  
• Tempo: Somewhere around a quarter note getting 96 bpm. Time Signature: 4-4.
• If you have a strings section to work with, that'd help out. If not, no big deal.
• As usual with my transcriptions, if you see 2 chords within one measure, assume that they're each worth 2 beats, unless otherwise noted.

|D|    Picture this
|Bm|   A Small Black Box
|F#|   To open it
|G|    Unlock the locks
|D F#| As I dissect
|Bm G| In retrospect
|A|    This scene

|G|    You turned it on like 
|Em|   A machine
|B7|   A mechanizing
|C|    Go-between
|G/D B7/D#| The clock-to-China
|Em G| Figurine 

|D|EmX|I do crash
|D F#| With everybody on the 
|Bm A| Ground
|G|A|  In pieces, coming down

|D|EmX|If I do crash
|D F#| With everybody on the 
|Bm A| Ground
|G|A|  and pieces coming down

|E|    On take-off we were 
|C#m|  Unaware
|G#|A| That we'd wind just up in the air
|E G#| Now we're fighting 
|C#m A|For the flare it 
|B|    Seems

|G|    But all you want's 
|Em|   Another toy
|B7|   We all need something 
|C|    To destroy
|G B7| Until you can 
|Em G| Believe the joy when 

|D|EmX|You crash
|D F#| With everybody on the 
|Bm A| Ground
|G|A|  In pieces, coming down

|D|EmX|If we do crash
|D F#| With everybody on the 
|Bm A| Ground
|G|A|  And pieces coming down

|Em|A|

June 23, 1997