Released on the album "Back in the High Life" in 1986 on Island Records.
Words and Music by Steve Winwood and Will Jennings
Key of F major. Time signature 4/4.
Transcription by Hisao Chida
Into:
F - Dm7 (x2)
Bb(addC) Dm/G C/G Bb(addC) Dm/G Am7
The story goes, the truth is no one knows
A stranger came, a man who lost his name
Verse: (0:45-)
Am G Am G C
At night he tells his tale, prison, women, wail
(G) Am G/G C
They took him in, he let them win
F
Over and over
F Fmaj7
He said if you don't have good words to say
Am F/C
Don't wake me up until the Judgment Day
Am G/B
'Cause if nothing is the way it seems
Am F/C G
Then this life is just a haunted dream
Am Fmaj7
And all this love is just falling down through the years
G F
And oh, I'd rather sleep
Am6(no 3rd) G Am6(no 3rd) G Am6(no 3rd) F
Chorus: (1:40-)
Fmaj9 G
Wake me up on Judgment Day
Let me hear golden trumpets play
Give me life where nothing fails
Not a dream in a wishing well
[Verse] (1:57-)
A man in tattered clothes, crying all he knows
The darkness grows, that's how it goes
Over and over
He said I think of the beauty I've had
And all it does is make me feel so bad
First they make you think you're riding high
Then they toss you off in the sky
And all this life is just falling down through the years
And oh, I'd rather sleep
(Chorus) (2:57-)
Bridge: (3:08-)
F - Dm7 (x2),
Dm - C (x2)
Dm C
Say a prayer for the stranger
Dm - C (x3)
Dm C
Listen to the stranger
(Chorus) (3:45-)
(Repeat & Fade Out)