Acoustic Picks

How could a song this easy be so catchy? Don’t let the chord names fool you, it only takes two fingers on one fret to do them.

On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
Em D6add9/F# / :::

The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And a sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound

[Chorus]
I been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
‘Cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain
La la la…
Em9 Aadd11 / :::

After two days in the desert sun
My skin began to turn red
After three days in the desert fun
I was looking at a riverbed
And the story it told of a river that flowed
Made me sad to think it was dead

[Chorus]

After nine days I let the horse run free
‘Cause the desert had turned to sea
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with its life underground
And a perfect disguise above
Under the cities lies a heard made of ground
But the humans will give no love

[Chorus]

Chord List
 

Ground control to Major Tom
Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills
And put your helmet on
C Em / : / Am Am7 / D7 /

Ground control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, engines on
Check ignition
And may God’s love be with you

This is ground control to Major Tom
You’ve really made the grade
And the papers want to know
Whose shirts you wear
Now it’s time to leave the capsule
If you dare
C E7 / F / Fm C / F / Fm C / F

This is Major Tom to ground control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do
Em7 / Fmaj7 Em7 / Bb Am / G F /

[Instrumental break]
C F G A / : / Fmaj7 Em7 / A C / Dsus2 E7

Though I’m past 100,000 miles
I’m feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows
Which way to go
Tell my wife I lover her very much
She knows

Ground control to Major Tom
Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong
Can you hear me Major Tom
Can you hear me Major Tom
Can you hear me Major Tom

Can you hear
Am I floating ’round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

Chord List

One more for your S&G set. Don’t be worried about all the chords, a lot of that is due to the different root notes.

Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together
I’ve got some real-estate hear in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes, and Mrs. Wagner pies
And walked off to look for America
C C/B Am C/G F / C C/B Am Am7 / Em7 A7 Em7 A7 / D C G C C/B Am7 Am7/G F

Cathy I said as we boarded the Greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitch-hike from Saginaw
And I’ve come to look for America

Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suite was a spy
I said be careful his bow tie is really a camera
Bbmaj7 Bb C / Bbmaj7 C C/B Am C/G / F Fmaj7 C C/B Am C/G Am7/G Fmaj7

Toss me a cigarette I think there’s one in my raincoat
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

“Cathy, I’m lost” I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America
They’ve all come to look for America
They’ve all come to look for America
[As in other verses followed by] D G D Cmaj7 / : / D G D Cmaj7 C

Chord List:

Continuing on today’s Simon & Garfunkel trend…

I was 21 years when I wrote this song
I’m 23 now, but I won’t be for long
Time hurries on
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
C Dm G C / C F G C / F G / C Bb F G C

[Chorus]
And they wither with the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Am / Dm G

Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl
I held her close, but she faded in the night
Like a poem I meant to write
And the leaves that are green turn to brown

[Chorus]

I threw a pebble in a brook
And watched the ripples run away
And they never made a sound
And the leaves that are green turn to brown

[Chorus]

Hello, hello, hello, hello
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
That’s all there is
And the leaves that are green turn to brown

Chord List:

A group whose music I like to slaughter more than most.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
Em D / – Em / C G / : / : / Em / G D Em

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence

Fools said I you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls”
And whispered in the sounds of silence

Chord List:

I don’t know if this is a very well known song, but I like it.

She hangs her head and cries in my shirt
She must be hurt very badly
Tell me what’s making you sad Li?
Open your door, don’t hide in the dark
You’re lost in the dark, you can trust me
‘Cause you know that’s how it must be
Lisa, Lisa, sad Lisa, Lisa
Em D C / D Em D G / D Em A / Em A D C / D Em D G / D Em A / Em A D Em

Her eyes like windows tricklin’ rain
Upon her pain getting deeper
‘though my love wants to relieve her
She walks alone from wall to wall
Lost in a hall, she can’t hear me
‘though I know she likes to be near me
Lisa, Lisa, sad Lisa, Lisa

She sits in a corner by the door
There must be more I can tell her
If she really wants me to help her
I’ll do what I can to show her the way
And maybe someday I will free her
‘though I know no one can see her
Lisa, Lisa sad Lisa, Lisa

Chord List

If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and go rent it.

As I travel down the back roads
Of this home I love so much
Every carpenter and cowboy
Every lame man on a crutch
They’re all talking about a feeling
‘Bout a taste that’s in the air
They’re talking about this mighty wind
That’s blowing everywhere
C / Am G F / C Am / Dm G / F Em / F G / F C Am / F G C

[Chorus]

Oh a mighty wind’s a blowing
It’s kickin’ up the sand
It’s blowin’ out a message
To every woman, child and man
Yes a mighty wind’s a blowing
‘Cross the land and ‘cross the sea
It’s blowing peace and freedom,
It’s blowing equality
Bb F / : / Am D7 / Bb G / Bb F / C C/B Am G / F C Am / F G C

From a lighthouse in Barr Harbor
To a bridge called Golden Gate
From a trawler down in Shreveport
To the shore of one great lake
There’s a star on the horizon
And its burning like a flame
Its lighting up this mighty wind
That’s blowing everywhere

[Chorus]

When the blind man sees the picture
When the deaf man hears the word
When the fisherman stops fishing
When the hunter spares the herd
We’ll still hear the wondrous story
Of a world where people care
The story of this mighty wind
That’s blowing everywhere

[Chorus]

Chord List

Her green plastic watering can
For her fake Chinese rubber plant
In fake plastic earth
That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
Just to get rid of itself
A / F#m / Dsus2/F# / A F#m / Dsus2/F#

And it wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, wears her out
Dsus2/B A / :

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

And it wears him out, it wears him out
It wears him out, wears him out

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love
But I can’t help feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

And it wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out

And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time, all the time

Chord List

Breathe, breathe in the air
Don’t be afraid to care
Leave, but don’t leave me
Look around, choose your own ground
Em A Asus4 / : / : / :

For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be
C / Bm / Am / G Dm7

Run, rabbit run
Dig that hole, forget the sun
And when at last the work is done
Don’t sit down it’s time to dig another one

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race toward an early grave

Home, home again
I like to be there when I can
When I come in cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire

Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells

Wise man say,
Only fools rush in
But I can’t help
Falling in love with you
F Am Dm / Bb F C7 / Bb C7 Dm / Gm F C7 F

Shall I stay,
Would it be a sin?
If I can’t help
Falling in love with you

Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling so it goes,
Some things are meant to be
Am E7 / Am E7 / Am E7 / Am D7 Gm C

Take my hand,
Take my whole life too
For I can’t help
Falling in love with you