Chords for Arlo Guthrie - The Garden Song - 1987

_ [Bm] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ [Bm] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ [Bm] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _
[G] In _ [C] Spanish, row [G] by row, [A] _ [D] gonna make [G] this garden [Em] grow.
[Am] _ [D] Gonna mulch [G] it deep [Em] and low, [A] gonna make it fertile [D] ground. _ _
[G] In Spanish, [C] row [G] by row, [Am] _ [D] please bless [G] these seeds [Em] I sow.
[Am] _ [D] Please keep [G] them safe [Em] below, [A] till the rain [D] comes [G] tumbling down.
[C] _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ Pulling weeds [C] and pecking [G] stones, [Am] we [D] are made [G] of [Em] dreams and [Am] bones.
[D] Need a place to call [E] my own, [A] cause the time is close [D] at hand.
_ _ [G] _ Rain for [C] rain, sun [G] and [Am] rain, [D] find my [G] way in [Em] nature's chain.
[Am] _ [D] To my [G] body and my [Em] brain, [A] to the music [D] of [G] the land.
_ In _ _ [C] Spanish, row [G] by [Am] row, [D] gonna make [G] this [Em] garden grow.
[Am] _ [D] Gonna [G] mulch it deep [Em] and low, [A] gonna make it fertile [D] ground.
_ _ [G] In Spanish, [C] row [G] by row, [Am] _ [D] please bless [G] these seeds [Em] I sow.
[Am] _ [D] Please keep [G] them [Em] safe below, [A] till the rain comes [G] tumbling [C] down.
_ [G] _ _ _ _
_ Plant your rose [C] straight and [Am] long, _ [D] season [G] with the [Em] prayer and [Am] song.
[D] Mother Earth [G] will make you [Em] strong, [A] if you give her [D] love and [C] care. _
[G] Old crow [C] watching from [G] a tree, [Am] he's [D] got his [G] hungry eye [Em] on me.
[Am] But [D] in my [G] garden I am as [Em] free, [A] as that feather [D] deep [G] up there. _
In _ [C] Spanish, row [G] by [Am] row, [D] gonna make [G] this [Em] garden grow.
[Am] _ [D] Gonna [G] mulch it deep [Em] and low, [A] gonna make it fertile [D] ground.
In _ _ _
[G] _ _ Spanish, [C] row [G] by row, [A] _ [D] please bless [G] these [Em] seeds I sow.
[Am] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _
_ _ I'm sitting out there saying, look, I don't want people to be seeing me sing on TV. _
People at home.
I know you don't want to see yourself, that's the worst, I know.
_ But hey, this is the truth now.
I mean, I used to, and not only, you probably, I know what it really is,
you're sitting there saying, look, why should I be singing along on that Dingleberry Folk song anyway? _ _
I used to feel this way about the song.
I learned the song from Pete Seeger.
And Pete would be up singing and everybody would be singing along, and I'd just be in the [G] back going,
_ [Bm] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _
[G] _ _ [Bm] _ _ [C] fantastic.
[D] _ _
[E] I wouldn't be caught dead singing this song.
I thought this _ was_
And I felt that way for a long time, even up until, I don't know, this morning.
_ _ [B] Actually, it was last week _ when I first began to change my mind, because last week by accident,
I happened to be up in Canada and I was coming back down across the border and they stopped me
at the Canadian Customs and Immigration.
They stopped me going out. _
I could see stopping me coming in, you [G] know, but I don't know.
I guess if you look like me now,
they stop you no matter which way you're going. _
So anyway, I was up there and I was stopped.
And they were going through my papers behind the glass booth and I was the only one stopped.
Everybody else was, sure, go right on ahead.
And it [G#m] was like late at night, I was sitting there alone.
And while I was [G#] sitting in there waiting, just by accident, I happened to be singing this song to myself.
You know, [Bm] I don't know, it just came to me. _
Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow, [B] yeah. _
_ And all of a sudden, a guy comes flying out the booth.
He tapped me on the shoulder and said,
excuse me, sir, but what's that you're doing, eh?
_ [N] _ I looked at the guy and said, hey, I'm singing a song.
He said, I know that, sir, but what language is that song in?
_ I said, what language?
It's in American!
_ And I looked at the guy and he had a puzzled face on, like a quizzled face, you know.
And I looked at him and I suddenly realized this guy was about 20 years old, probably just out of school.
This was his first job and he didn't know _ what an inch was. _ _ _
_ I suddenly realized, _ _ I suddenly realized this was no Dingleberry folk song I [F#] was singing.
_ I suddenly [B] realized this song was significant.
This song was [G#] about something.
This song was about the last spot, about the last bastion, [D#] about the last place
where we still have the poetry of mile after mile in our lives and not kilometer after kilometer. _ _
I suddenly realized, _ _ _ [F#] I suddenly knew this song was [G#] no just Dingleberry folk song.
I knew this song was significant.
It was about a way of life just rapidly disappearing from the entire planet and maybe even the whole universe. _ _ _
I suddenly realized there's a new way of life, sneaking [B] in, sneaking in, screwing us up.
Sneaking in when you got to buy pop bottles and plastic liters now.
[B] You got to buy gas the same way in some places.
They say it's cheap now.
How do you know? _
_ Sneaking in when kids come home from school doing homework and you don't even know it's math they're doing. _
Sneaking in, screwing up our way of life.
It doesn't take too much.
I mean everybody in the world, every country in the world used to have their own way of counting years ago.
Look what's happened to the world now that everybody's going to this new stuff.
_ _ _ Screwed up. _
_ And that's being kind and generous.
And that's being [N] on TV. _ _ _ _ _
You know what I'm talking about. _ _ _ _ _
And it's beginning to happen here in America. _
And people are asking, people are saying, how come it's getting screwed up here in America?
And so the Congress got committees, President got [Bm] commission.
Everybody wants to know.
Nobody asked me and I know.
_ _ _ _ _ I know, because I know stuff.
_ _ I sing about stuff.
I sing about a lot of important things sometimes.
But there's nothing more important than this song. _ _
So I want you to sing along because it should be obvious now to everyone around the world
that the problems of the world can't be solved in meters.
[F#] _ The problems of the world can only be solved the way we made them.
Inch by inch.
And mile after mile. _ _ _ _ _
_ Here we go now. _ _ _
Don't be [N] clapping and stuff.
You got to sing along.
Inch by inch.
[D] Okay, here [E] we go.
_ [F#] _ [G] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ [G] Inch by [C] inch, row by [Am] row, _ gonna [G] make this [Em] garden [Am] grow.
[D] Go to the ball pit.
[Em] Oh wait, [A] I still, okay, wait a minute.
Stop the [B] song.
I know some people are trying to sing now and there's other people sitting back there saying I don't care.
_ I don't care if that song could save the world.
I'm not gonna sing that song. _
Because I hate gardens _ and I hate songs about them.
I know there's people that feel like that in the world and a lot of them moved to Austin, Texas.
And they're all here at the show right now.
_ [N] People who hate gardens.
_ I can feel it out there.
I know what I'm talking about.
_ _ _ And if you feel like that, _ this is a verse for you. _
Somebody gave me this the other day because they hated gardens too and they weren't gonna sing on this song.
So [D] maybe it'll be an inspiration for you.
I know everybody needs a different kind of inspiration in the world.
So here we go.
I just have to [B] remember it. _ _ _ _ _
_ It's hard sometimes [G] to remember.
Let's see.
It goes.
_ Slug [Bm] by slug, _
[C] _ weed [G] by weed.
_ [Am] _ _
[D] Boy, this [G] garden's got me [Em] teased. _ _
[Am] _ _ [D] All the insects [F#m] _
[Em] come to feed _ [A] in my [D] tomato plants.
_ [G] _ _ [Bm] Sunburned face, _
[C] skinned [G] up knees.
I hate this next [Am] line.
[D] The kitchen's choked [G] with _ [Em]
zucchinis.
_ _ [Am] _ _ Shopping [G] at the A _ [Em]&E's [A] next [D] time I [G] get the [F#] chance.
_ [G] _ Inch by [C] inch, row [G] by [Am] row.
_ [D] Gonna make [G] this [Em] garden grow.
[Am] _ [D] Gonna [G] mulch it deep [Em] and low.
[A] Gonna make it fertile [D] ground.
_ _ [G] Inch by inch, [C] row [G] by row.
[Am] _ [D] Please bless [G] these seeds [Em] I sow.
[Am] _ [D] Please keep [G] them sippy [Em] low.
[A] Till the rain [D] comes down.
[G] _ _ _ _ Inch by [C] inch, row by row.
[Am] _ _ [D] Gonna make [G] this garden grow.
[Am] _ _ Gonna [G] mulch it deep [Em] and low.
[A] Gonna make [B] it fertile [D] ground.
_ _ _ [G] Inch by inch, [C] row [G] by [Am] row.
_ Please bless [G]
these seeds [Em] I [Am] sow.
[D] Please keep them [Em] sippy low.
Till [A] the rain [D] comes [C] tumbling down.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _