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20 CLASSIC SONGS your friends will love

Beatles - Petty - Johnny Cash - Eagles - John Denver - Dylan

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Father's Grave

Len Chandler

 

Chord Guide

      3    4

G:    3x0003

         T  213

D7/F#:  2x0212

        3 2 1

C/G:   3x2010

        12

Em:   022000

        231

Am:   x02210

 

Capo 5

 

Intro:  / G - - - / D7/F# - - - / - - - - / C/G - - - /

            / G - - - / - - - - / - - - - /

 

                G                       D7/F#

With my swing blade in my hand

       C                        G

As I looked across the land

         G                        Em               Am    D7/F#

And thought of all the places that I'd been,

                  G                         Em

Of that old house that I called home

               G                  Em

Where I'd always been alone

                G           Em           Am  D7/F#                 

And of that weedy grave that held          

                  C/G   G

My dearest kin.

 

Chorus:

             C                          D7/F#                 G                    Em

And as I cut the weeds from o'er my father's grave, father's grave,

      C                   D7/F#               C/G     G

I swore no child I bore would be a slave

 

           G                          D7/F#

The old house was just a shell

                     C                        G

There were weeds around the well

          G                          Em               Am     D7/F#

And I touched that rusty hinge that held no door

    G                       Em

Oh, the roof was caving in

            G                   Em

It was always sort of thin

          G              Em                 Am    D7/F#  

And I found that place that the ash pan

                   C/G   G

Burned the floor

 

Chorus

 

G                           D7/F#

I thought of all the glad

              C                        G

And the good times that I had

             G                     Em                     Am    D7/F#

With my pockets full of purple plums each fall

                 G                           Em

When the yard was wide and clean

                G                            Em

And the grass was short and green

G                     Em         Am       D7/F#  

Now the underbrush has laid its claim

     C/G   G

to all

 

Chorus

 

   G                           D7/F#

I learned of violence done

             C                        G

By my mother's brother's son

            G                       Em                    Am    D7/F#

Was it hate or hurt that held the hand to knife

                  G                   Em

Oh, it was trouble in the mind

 G                             Em

Guess that's the only kind

          G             Em              Am  D7/F#  

Could make my cousin try to take          his father's

   C/G   G

Life.

 

Chorus

 

      G                      D7/F#

It made me feel so bad

               C                        G

Lost the best friend that I had

          G                 Em                       Am    D7/F#

And I didn't get to hear the preacher pray

              G               Em

Yes, and I was only eight

         G                      Em

No, I can't recall the date

              G                Em

Nor the reason I was late

          G                         Em

But a funeral just can't wait

             G         Em                   Am  D7/F#  

When I got to church they were rolling       

           C/G   G

Him away.

 

Chorus x2


This file is the author's own work and represents his interpretation of this song. It's intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.