Keep on rockin' in the free world (performed live acoustic by Neil Young)

Transcribed by Soenen Martijn (martijnsoenen@hotmail.com) 20:01 19/12/2000

NOTES: this is the acoustic version of the song. Neil plays it tuning his guitar
one step down (DGCFAD). I play it in standard tuning. On my guitar the song seems
the best in standard tuning. This is one of the most beautiful songs I know with
extremely good lyrics.

In the times of  a commie-hater like Nixon, America seemed the promised land
and the USA was called "the free world" as a reaction against communism. But
although America wasn't a dream or the promised land. In the USA, there was
also poverty, there was a lot of hypocrisy, there was a lot of violence (certainly
by the government backed army and police). I guess this song by Neil is a quite
cynical or ironical (call it what you want) protest against the examples of the
"American Dream". Or maybe the message is just: keep on rockin' in the free world!


CHORDS used in this song:

        EADGBE			EADGBE
Em7	022030		Em      022000
D 	000323	        A       x02220
C       x32010		G/A     x00000
G       320003

This is an example of how you can play the intro and the verse. It's hard to put this intro in tabs.
You have to find it out yourself actually. When you start to play the intro with the Em chord it
sounds good if you add your little finger (Em7) just before the chord change to D.

INTRO:

       Em       Em7   D     C

e |----0--0--0--0--0--2--2--0--0--0--0----------------------------------------|
B |----0--0--0--3--3--3--3--1--1--1--1----------------------------------------|
G |----0--0--0--0--0--2--2--0--0--0--0----------------------------------------|
D |----2--2--2--2--2--0--0--2--2--2--2----------------------------------------|
A |----2--2--2--2--2--------3--3--3--3----------------------------------------|
E |--0------------------------------------------------------------------------|		X 4

VERSES:

     Em                                      D             C

e |--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0------------------2--2--2-------0--0--0--0---------------------|
B |--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0------------------3--3--3-------1--1--1--1---------------------|
G |--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0------------------2--2--2-------0--0--0--0---------------------|
D |--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2------------------0--0--0-------2--2--2--2---------------------|
A |--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--------------------------------3--3--3--3---------------------|
E |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

     Colors on the street
     Red, white, and blue
     People shuffling their feet
     People sleeping in their shoes
     There's a warning sign in the           road         ahead
     There's a lot of people saying we'd be  better off    dead
     Don't feel like Satan, but I            am to         them
     So I try forget them any                way I         can

     I see a girl in the night
     with a baby in her hands
     Under an old street light
     near a garbage can
     Now she put her kid away, she's         gone to get a hit
     She hates her life, and what she's      done with     it
     That's one more kid, that'll            never go to   school
     Never get to fall in love, never        get to be     cool

CHORUS:

     G          D 			  C          Em       G/A

e |--3--3--3----2--2--2--2--2--2--2-------0----0--|--0--0--0--0--0--0--0------|
B |--0--0--0----3--3--3--3--3--3--3-------1----1--|--0--0--0--0--0--0--0------|
G |--0--0--0----2--2--2--2--2--2--2-------0----0--|--0--0--0--0--0--0--0------|
D |--0--0--0----0--0--0--0--0--0--0-------2----2--|--2--2--2--0--0--0--0------|
A |--2--2--2------------------------------3----3--|--2--2--2--0--0--0--0------|
E |--3--3--3--------------------------------------|---------------------------|	        X 4

     Keep on    rocking in the free world						X 4

INTERLUDE: (played after each chorus goes something like this:)

     A		G/A        A          G/A       A          G/A

e |--0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0----0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0---0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0------------|
B |--2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2----2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2---2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2------------|
G |--2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2----2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2---2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2------------|
D |--2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2----2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2---2-2-2-2-2--0-0-0h2------------|
A |--0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0----0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0---0-0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0------------|
E |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|


OUTRO: (Neil ends live with hitting the chords once quite hard)

e |--3~~~~~~~~------2----0---------------------------------------|
B |--0~~~~~~~~------3----1---------------------------------------|
G |--0~~~~~~~~------2----0---------------------------------------|
D |--0~~~~~~~~------0----2---------------------------------------|
A |--2~~~~~~~~-----------3---------------------------------------|
E |--3~~~~~~~~---------------------------------------------------|

        Keep on rocking in the free world
        keep on rocking in the free world
        keep on rocking in the free world
        keep on rocking in the free world