Chords for Pete Seeger on the Johnny Cash Show

_ _ _ _ _ That sound you hear is coming from a hundred-year-old banjo called the fretless banjo.
One of the few people I know that can play one is [N] Mr.
Pete Seeger. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ That is a beautiful old banjo.
That was given to me to give to you by a friend of mine, Bob Johnson, down at Chickamauga, Georgia.
Beauty.
You know, in the old days when the [Bm] Monkey Ward catalogs first started distributing banjos,
they arrived in the mountains, people didn't know what to do with the frets.
They filed them off
and they were all flat.
_ _ _ First banjos had no frets.
You can do some things on them you can't on a regular banjo. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ Roll my britches to my knees, roll my britches to my knees, roll my britches to my [D] knees,
wait on Cripple Creek when I [Eb] please, going down Cripple Creek, going down the road,
going [B] down Cripple Creek, have a little fun.
[Db] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ That's nice. _ _ _ _
The old songs are good ones, Pete.
I love the old songs, but you know,
the old songs, a lot of them seem to have a lot to say.
Not especially that one,
that's a pretty melody, all right, cute tune, but a lot of the older songs had more to say
than a lot of songs that are written now.
In Florida, Johnny, a friend of mine named Will McLean
wrote a ballad, it's a true story also, just like that, about, well, same time of history, 1830s,
[Eb] and I think you might like the song. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ In a dungeon deep at St.
[Bb] Augustine,
Chief Fossio [Eb] leapt for his people and his golden land, his body had not slept.
[F] Then Wildcat said, oh, [Ab] Chief, I beg [Eb] you go with me to stand against our mortal foe.
But _ Osceola raised his proud head [Bb] high, said, do this ere [Eb] I die. _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Oh, good for several reasons, Pete.
This song reminds us of the mistakes that we've made in
the past, and maybe we'll profit from some of them.
We've all made mistakes, there's no doubt
about that.
Listen, we've got a special place out here for you, and I know how you like to get the
audience to sing along with you, how about it?
Pete Seeger, folks. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] Old, old song, maybe [F] some of you
know it. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Takes a red man to sing the red song, takes a [Bb] red man to sing [A] the red song, takes a red
man to sing the red song, [D] but _ _ [Gm] I won't be [F] worried.
_ _ Went across the river and I lay down to sleep,
[Bb] went across the river, I lay down to [A] sleep, went across the river and I lay down to sleep.
[Dm] When I woke up, _ I had shackles on my feet.
[F] Hey, some of you know this song just as well
as I do.
No sense me hollering the head off all by myself.
_ Kind of hum along with me, tap your feet
if you want.
_ Don't [D] let your neighbor look at you [F] peculiarly, dig them in the ribs and let them sing
in tune.
It takes a red man, try it, to sing the red song.
I don't hear you.
[Bb] Takes a red man to sing the red song.
That's better.
Takes a red man to sing the red song.
Worry [D]
now, but I won't be worried [F] long.
There's 29 links of chain around my [Bb] leg, 29 links of chain [F] around my leg, 29 links of chain around my leg.
[D] On [C] each link, _ _ an initial [F] of my name.
I said it takes a red man to sing the red song.
[Bb] Takes a red man to sing [F] the red song.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ Well, I asked that judge, what might, _ [Bb] I asked that judge, I _
[F] _ _ asked that judge, what might be my fine,
[C] 21 years _ [Gm] on the rocky [F]
mountain side.
Takes a red man to sing the [Bb] red song. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ Takes a red man [C] to sing the red song.
Worry now, but [Gm] I won't be [F] worried long.
Oh man, it sounds so good when you all join in. _
You know these old songs, they're never gonna die out. _ _
This song is a whole human race.
_ Across that river I fell fast asleep.
I woke up with shackles on my feet.
_ _ That's everybody's history.
Across the ocean, we thought we solved all our problems. _ _
You have that
revolution, you get that home, you get that job, you think you solved all your problems.
Across that river and found you got shackles on your feet.
_ And who's the judge? _
Is it some old guy,
74 years old, with black robes? _
_ Might be the young judging the old, or the poor judging the rich.
_ _ But you know, no matter what mistakes we ever made, _ still got a last verse that holds out some hope.
_ Who can live without hope?
It says, _ well I looked down the track just as far as I could see.
[Bb] I looked down the track just as far as I [F] could see.
I looked down the track just as far as I could see.
[C] Little bitty hand was waving out [F] to me.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _