IT'S A HARD LIFE WHEREVER YOU GO (Nanci Griffith) ------------------------------------------------- * Actually in C; capo 5. * The whole song has pretty much the same chords, illustrated by the following pattern (the strumming is just an example, taken from the intro). The only exception is the beginning of the chorus.
E 0h2-2-2-2-2-3---3-3-3-3-|3---3-3-3---3-----3-3-3-| 3---3-3-3-3-3---3-3-3-3-|3---3-3-3---3-----3-3-3-| 2---2-2-2-2-0---0-0-0-0-|0---0-0-0---0-----0-0-0-| D 0---0-0-0-0-0h2-2-2-2-2-|0---0-0-0---0-----0-0-0-| A ------------0h3-3-3-3-3-|0h2-2-2-2---2-----2-2-2-| E ------------------------|0h3-3-3-3---3-----3-3-3-| d d u d u d d u d u d d u d d u d u :--strumming
[intro]
I am a backseat driver from America
We drive to the left on Falls Road
And the man at the wheel's name is Seamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Seamus says, now what chance has that kid got And I say from the back, I don't know He says there's barbed wire at all of these exits And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go
'Cause it's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
And if we poison our children with hatred
Then the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go
Cafeteria line in Chicago The fat man in front of me Is calling black people trash to his children And he's the only trash here I see
And I am thinking this man wears a white hood In the night when his children should sleep But they'll slip to their windows and they'll see him And they'll think that white hood's all they need
'Cause it's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life It's a hard life wherever you go And if we poison our children with hatred Then the hard life is all that they'll know And there ain't no place in Chicago for those kids to go
I was a child in the Sixties When dreams could be held through T.V. With Disney and Cronkite and Martin Luther And I believed, I believed, I believed
Now I am the backseat driver from America And I am not at the wheel of control And I am guilty, I am war, and I am the root of all evil Lord, and I can't drive on the left side of the road
'Cause it's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life It's a hard life wherever you go And if we poison our children with hatred Then the hard life is all that they'll know And there ain't no place in this world for those kids to go 'Cause it's a hard life wherever you go
NOTE for a 2nd guitar: (a friend and backup guitarist of Nanci Griffith's) was her guitar teacher at one point, and he said that when he toured with Nanci, he played these chords over Nanci's D C G sequence (NO capo for Frank's chords)...
G: x-x-12-12-10-10 F: x-x-10-10-8-8 C: x-x-5-5-5-3 (also xx5533 for C)
