Chords for The Story Behind "Forever Young" by Pete Seeger
Tempo:
82.3 bpm
Chords used:
D
A
G
Bm
E
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[D]
Bob Dylan has influenced a [Em] lot of people over the last 50 years, but there were a few people
who actually [A] influenced Bob Dylan.
[D] The famous one, of course, Woody Guthrie.
But one of the [G] other people who [D] inspired Bob Dylan in his early days is still with us,
the legendary Pete Seeger.
Word legendary is bandied around.
[G] A lot of people claim that [D] word legendary.
Pete Seeger really is legendary.
[G] In 1955, he went [D] before the House [A] Committee on Un-American [D] Activities and had the strength
and courage to say, I have my right to free speech.
He was sent to prison for that.
[A] This [Bm] is a man of courage.
It's [Eb] amazing, he's still out [Ab] there fighting for ordinary people at the age of [D] 92.
[A] [Ab] [G] Some people are going [A] to sing a [G] song for you.
Where's [N] Pete?
Pete Seeger?
I had the honor and privilege of working with Pete Seeger in 2010.
For Amnesty, it was the 70th anniversary of the birth of John Lennon.
I produced and hosted a concert in New York City on the exact birthday [E] of John Lennon.
And among the artists [G] we managed to get there was Pete [D] Seeger [Eb] to sing Give [Ab] Peace a Chance
with a choir of 9, [Em] 10 year old kids that Pete's been working with the last few years.
The night was magical.
Now for me, I only cared about one thing.
I heard that Pete Seeger was [B] going to be there.
I just wanted to [E] be anywhere near him.
Give Peace a Chance!
But here's a guy who at that time was 91, who is just full of life.
He insisted on [B] coming to that concert.
He drove himself from upstate New York to New York on a Saturday [E] night, drove himself
at 91 because he wanted to be there to pay tribute to John Lennon and to honor Amnesty [B] International.
What John Lennon was to me, Pete Seeger was for Bob Dylan.
So it just was a magical moment and there is [E] Pete Seeger, 92 years old, with his children's choir.
I started thinking to myself, [A] we're doing an album of Bob Dylan songs [D] and one of the
two people who most inspired Bob Dylan is still with us and I got to know him.
So I call up and Pete Seeger is committed to Amnesty.
He was in support of Amnesty when it first started in [E] 1961.
So first [A] of all his reaction is he wants to [D] help because it's Amnesty and yeah, he has
a soft spot [G] for Bob Dylan.
[D] What inspires me about Pete Seeger is he has this [A] incredible spirit and [D] that philosophy
and spirit [G] is to keep active, [D] to be young [A] in your heart.
I thought, [G] hold on a moment, there's a Bob Dylan song about that, [D] it's called Forever Young.
Pete [Bm] is open to it but he says, [Db] I don't think I [D] can sing.
My singing voice is not there anymore [Gbm] but I could read it, [A] I could say it.
So it's agreed that he will [Bbm] recite [Bm] Forever Young.
Well now I [D] know I need a little bit of music.
So I went to my good friend Mark Hudson [G] who [D] produced for Ozzy [A] Osbourne, [G] Aerosmith.
For ten years he was the guy that put together Ringo [D] Starr's records.
Here is this guy [Bm] who was on the forefront of folk [D] music and the beginnings of rock and
roll and the beginnings [Gbm] of Bob Dylan which was the beginnings of the Beatles and it goes
on and on and [A] he goes, here is Pete Seeger, why don't [Gm] we do it together?
[Bm] And I went, okay, no problem.
He [D] came up with an arrangement that was really beautiful, building up [Em] a track that Pete can [A] [G] speak over.
May you always do for others.
To help us out on the track, I called up my friend John [D] Altman who is a great music arranger
[Bm] and film composer [A] and he wrote this [D] beautiful string arrangement for a string quartet.
But [Gbm] even now I need the [A] world's greatest engineer to help me.
[Bbm] The greatest [Bm] engineer in the world bar [Gbm] none is Jeff [D] Emerick and he is the guy who engineered
for the Beatles.
[G] He [D] recorded the strings on Eleanor Rigby [Em] and [A] said, please can you do your [D] magic?
And he did it.
[N] We went and we rehearsed with the children in upstate New York.
It was just like something out of my life that I'll never forget.
They're called the Rivertown Kids [E] and they're a bunch of kids, about [D] 20 of them maybe, [Db] aged
from 9 to 12 or [D] 13.
Well the Rivertown Kids are not a choir like you would think a choir should be.
[E] They are [A] kids from a school [D] that loves singing.
They live in the same [G] town as [D] Pete Seeger, Beacon in upstate New York [A] and Pete became
their mentor [D] and sang with them and in fact [G] Pete Seeger and the kids together [D] won the
Grammy for best [A] kids album in 2011.
[Bm] We went up north and Pete [D] laid down the spoken word, the kids laid down their part, it was beautiful.
And we did this on a summer's day.
Pete comes into the studio [Em] and he's the coolest customer, full [A] of life, and especially loved
being around the young [D] kids and Pete read the lyrics and performed those lyrics to the
kids as a message to them.
May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others [E] and let others do [A] for you.
[D] May you build a ladder to the stars [G] and climb on [D] every rung and may you stay [A] forever [D] young.
[G] It's like the elder [D] of our tribe.
[A] Forever [G] young.
[D]
May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others and [E] let others do [A] for you.
For Human Rights, [D] a little booklet that gives all the chapters [G] of the Universal [D] Declaration
of Human Rights, ordained by the United Nations in [A] 1948.
[D] [G] I'm thinking, this is the future.
[D] These kids are now ambassadors [A] for human rights and [Bm] they've got the message and Pete has [D] inspired them.
[A] This is a guy who's an inspiration to all of us.
Forever young.
[C] You're never [G] too old [C] to change the world.
[F]
Bob Dylan has influenced a [Em] lot of people over the last 50 years, but there were a few people
who actually [A] influenced Bob Dylan.
[D] The famous one, of course, Woody Guthrie.
But one of the [G] other people who [D] inspired Bob Dylan in his early days is still with us,
the legendary Pete Seeger.
Word legendary is bandied around.
[G] A lot of people claim that [D] word legendary.
Pete Seeger really is legendary.
[G] In 1955, he went [D] before the House [A] Committee on Un-American [D] Activities and had the strength
and courage to say, I have my right to free speech.
He was sent to prison for that.
[A] This [Bm] is a man of courage.
It's [Eb] amazing, he's still out [Ab] there fighting for ordinary people at the age of [D] 92.
[A] [Ab] [G] Some people are going [A] to sing a [G] song for you.
Where's [N] Pete?
Pete Seeger?
I had the honor and privilege of working with Pete Seeger in 2010.
For Amnesty, it was the 70th anniversary of the birth of John Lennon.
I produced and hosted a concert in New York City on the exact birthday [E] of John Lennon.
And among the artists [G] we managed to get there was Pete [D] Seeger [Eb] to sing Give [Ab] Peace a Chance
with a choir of 9, [Em] 10 year old kids that Pete's been working with the last few years.
The night was magical.
Now for me, I only cared about one thing.
I heard that Pete Seeger was [B] going to be there.
I just wanted to [E] be anywhere near him.
Give Peace a Chance!
But here's a guy who at that time was 91, who is just full of life.
He insisted on [B] coming to that concert.
He drove himself from upstate New York to New York on a Saturday [E] night, drove himself
at 91 because he wanted to be there to pay tribute to John Lennon and to honor Amnesty [B] International.
What John Lennon was to me, Pete Seeger was for Bob Dylan.
So it just was a magical moment and there is [E] Pete Seeger, 92 years old, with his children's choir.
I started thinking to myself, [A] we're doing an album of Bob Dylan songs [D] and one of the
two people who most inspired Bob Dylan is still with us and I got to know him.
So I call up and Pete Seeger is committed to Amnesty.
He was in support of Amnesty when it first started in [E] 1961.
So first [A] of all his reaction is he wants to [D] help because it's Amnesty and yeah, he has
a soft spot [G] for Bob Dylan.
[D] What inspires me about Pete Seeger is he has this [A] incredible spirit and [D] that philosophy
and spirit [G] is to keep active, [D] to be young [A] in your heart.
I thought, [G] hold on a moment, there's a Bob Dylan song about that, [D] it's called Forever Young.
Pete [Bm] is open to it but he says, [Db] I don't think I [D] can sing.
My singing voice is not there anymore [Gbm] but I could read it, [A] I could say it.
So it's agreed that he will [Bbm] recite [Bm] Forever Young.
Well now I [D] know I need a little bit of music.
So I went to my good friend Mark Hudson [G] who [D] produced for Ozzy [A] Osbourne, [G] Aerosmith.
For ten years he was the guy that put together Ringo [D] Starr's records.
Here is this guy [Bm] who was on the forefront of folk [D] music and the beginnings of rock and
roll and the beginnings [Gbm] of Bob Dylan which was the beginnings of the Beatles and it goes
on and on and [A] he goes, here is Pete Seeger, why don't [Gm] we do it together?
[Bm] And I went, okay, no problem.
He [D] came up with an arrangement that was really beautiful, building up [Em] a track that Pete can [A] [G] speak over.
May you always do for others.
To help us out on the track, I called up my friend John [D] Altman who is a great music arranger
[Bm] and film composer [A] and he wrote this [D] beautiful string arrangement for a string quartet.
But [Gbm] even now I need the [A] world's greatest engineer to help me.
[Bbm] The greatest [Bm] engineer in the world bar [Gbm] none is Jeff [D] Emerick and he is the guy who engineered
for the Beatles.
[G] He [D] recorded the strings on Eleanor Rigby [Em] and [A] said, please can you do your [D] magic?
And he did it.
[N] We went and we rehearsed with the children in upstate New York.
It was just like something out of my life that I'll never forget.
They're called the Rivertown Kids [E] and they're a bunch of kids, about [D] 20 of them maybe, [Db] aged
from 9 to 12 or [D] 13.
Well the Rivertown Kids are not a choir like you would think a choir should be.
[E] They are [A] kids from a school [D] that loves singing.
They live in the same [G] town as [D] Pete Seeger, Beacon in upstate New York [A] and Pete became
their mentor [D] and sang with them and in fact [G] Pete Seeger and the kids together [D] won the
Grammy for best [A] kids album in 2011.
[Bm] We went up north and Pete [D] laid down the spoken word, the kids laid down their part, it was beautiful.
And we did this on a summer's day.
Pete comes into the studio [Em] and he's the coolest customer, full [A] of life, and especially loved
being around the young [D] kids and Pete read the lyrics and performed those lyrics to the
kids as a message to them.
May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others [E] and let others do [A] for you.
[D] May you build a ladder to the stars [G] and climb on [D] every rung and may you stay [A] forever [D] young.
[G] It's like the elder [D] of our tribe.
[A] Forever [G] young.
[D]
May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others and [E] let others do [A] for you.
For Human Rights, [D] a little booklet that gives all the chapters [G] of the Universal [D] Declaration
of Human Rights, ordained by the United Nations in [A] 1948.
[D] [G] I'm thinking, this is the future.
[D] These kids are now ambassadors [A] for human rights and [Bm] they've got the message and Pete has [D] inspired them.
[A] This is a guy who's an inspiration to all of us.
Forever young.
[C] You're never [G] too old [C] to change the world.
[F]
Key:
D
A
G
Bm
E
D
A
G
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
Bob Dylan has influenced a [Em] lot of people over the last 50 years, but there were a few people
who actually [A] influenced Bob Dylan.
[D] The famous one, of course, Woody Guthrie.
But one of the [G] other people who [D] inspired Bob Dylan in his early days is still with us,
the legendary Pete Seeger.
_ Word legendary is bandied around.
[G] A lot of people claim that [D] word legendary.
Pete Seeger really is legendary.
[G] In 1955, he went [D] before the House [A] Committee on Un-American [D] Activities and had the strength
and courage to say, I have my right to free speech.
He was sent to prison for that.
[A] This [Bm] is a man of courage.
It's [Eb] amazing, he's still out [Ab] there fighting for ordinary people at the age of [D] 92.
[A] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [G] Some people are going [A] to sing a [G] song for you.
Where's [N] Pete?
Pete Seeger?
I had the honor and privilege of working with Pete Seeger in 2010.
For Amnesty, it was the 70th anniversary of the birth of John Lennon.
I produced and hosted a concert in New York City on the exact birthday [E] of John Lennon.
_ And among the artists [G] we managed to get there was Pete [D] Seeger [Eb] to sing Give [Ab] Peace a Chance
with a choir of 9, [Em] 10 year old kids that Pete's been working with the last few years.
The night was magical.
Now for me, I only cared about one thing.
I heard that Pete Seeger was [B] going to be there.
I just wanted to [E] be anywhere near him.
Give Peace a Chance!
But here's a guy who at that time was 91, who is just full of life.
He insisted on [B] coming to that concert.
He drove himself from upstate New York to New York on a Saturday [E] night, drove himself
at 91 because he wanted to be there to pay tribute to John Lennon and to honor Amnesty [B] International.
What John Lennon was to me, Pete Seeger was for Bob Dylan.
So it just was a magical moment and there is [E] Pete Seeger, 92 years old, with his children's choir.
I started thinking to myself, [A] we're doing an album of Bob Dylan songs [D] and one of the
two people who most inspired Bob Dylan is still with us and I got to know him.
So I call up and Pete Seeger is committed to Amnesty.
He was in support of Amnesty when it first started in [E] 1961.
So first [A] of all his reaction is he wants to [D] help because it's Amnesty and yeah, he has
a soft spot [G] for Bob Dylan.
[D] What inspires me about Pete Seeger is he has this [A] incredible spirit and [D] that philosophy
and spirit [G] is to keep active, [D] to be young [A] in your heart.
I thought, [G] hold on a moment, there's a Bob Dylan song about that, [D] it's called Forever Young.
Pete [Bm] is open to it but he says, [Db] I don't think I [D] can sing.
My singing voice is not there anymore [Gbm] but I could read it, [A] I could say it.
So it's agreed that he will [Bbm] recite [Bm] Forever Young.
Well now I [D] know I need a little bit of music.
So I went to my good friend Mark Hudson [G] who [D] produced for Ozzy [A] Osbourne, [G] Aerosmith.
For ten years he was the guy that put together Ringo [D] Starr's records.
Here is this guy [Bm] who was on the forefront of folk [D] music and the beginnings of rock and
roll and the beginnings [Gbm] of Bob Dylan which was the beginnings of the Beatles and it goes
on and on and [A] he goes, here is Pete Seeger, why don't [Gm] we do it together?
[Bm] And I went, okay, no problem.
He [D] came up with an arrangement that was really beautiful, building up [Em] a track that Pete can [A] [G] speak over.
May you always do for others.
To help us out on the track, I called up my friend John [D] Altman who is a great music arranger
[Bm] and film composer [A] and he wrote this [D] beautiful string arrangement for a string quartet.
But [Gbm] even now I need the [A] world's greatest engineer to help me.
[Bbm] The greatest [Bm] engineer in the world bar [Gbm] none is Jeff [D] Emerick and he is the guy who engineered
for the Beatles.
[G] He [D] recorded the strings on Eleanor Rigby [Em] and [A] said, please can you do your [D] magic?
And he did it.
_ [N] We went and we rehearsed with the children in upstate New York.
It was just like something out of my life that I'll never forget.
They're called the Rivertown Kids [E] and they're a bunch of kids, about [D] 20 of them maybe, [Db] aged
from 9 to 12 or [D] 13.
Well the Rivertown Kids are not a choir like you would think a choir should be.
[E] They are [A] kids from a school [D] that loves singing.
They live in the same [G] town as [D] Pete Seeger, Beacon in upstate New York [A] and Pete became
their mentor [D] and sang with them and in fact [G] Pete Seeger and the kids together [D] won the
Grammy for best [A] kids album in 2011.
[Bm] We went up north and Pete [D] laid down the spoken word, the kids laid down their part, it was beautiful.
And we did this on a summer's day.
Pete comes into the studio _ [Em] and he's the coolest customer, full [A] of life, and especially loved
being around the young [D] kids and Pete read the lyrics and performed those lyrics to the
kids as a message to them.
May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others [E] and let others do [A] for you.
[D] May you build a ladder to the stars [G] and climb on [D] every rung and may you stay [A] forever [D] young.
[G] It's like the elder [D] of our tribe.
[A] Forever [G] young.
_ _ [D] _ _
_ May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others and [E] let others do [A] for you.
For Human Rights, [D] a little booklet that gives all the chapters [G] of the Universal [D] Declaration
of Human Rights, ordained by the United Nations in [A] 1948.
_ [D] [G] I'm thinking, this is the future.
[D] These kids are now ambassadors [A] for human rights and [Bm] they've got the message and Pete has [D] inspired them.
[A] This is a guy who's an inspiration to all of us.
Forever _ young.
_ [C] _ _ You're never [G] too old [C] to change the world.
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Bob Dylan has influenced a [Em] lot of people over the last 50 years, but there were a few people
who actually [A] influenced Bob Dylan.
[D] The famous one, of course, Woody Guthrie.
But one of the [G] other people who [D] inspired Bob Dylan in his early days is still with us,
the legendary Pete Seeger.
_ Word legendary is bandied around.
[G] A lot of people claim that [D] word legendary.
Pete Seeger really is legendary.
[G] In 1955, he went [D] before the House [A] Committee on Un-American [D] Activities and had the strength
and courage to say, I have my right to free speech.
He was sent to prison for that.
[A] This [Bm] is a man of courage.
It's [Eb] amazing, he's still out [Ab] there fighting for ordinary people at the age of [D] 92.
[A] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [G] Some people are going [A] to sing a [G] song for you.
Where's [N] Pete?
Pete Seeger?
I had the honor and privilege of working with Pete Seeger in 2010.
For Amnesty, it was the 70th anniversary of the birth of John Lennon.
I produced and hosted a concert in New York City on the exact birthday [E] of John Lennon.
_ And among the artists [G] we managed to get there was Pete [D] Seeger [Eb] to sing Give [Ab] Peace a Chance
with a choir of 9, [Em] 10 year old kids that Pete's been working with the last few years.
The night was magical.
Now for me, I only cared about one thing.
I heard that Pete Seeger was [B] going to be there.
I just wanted to [E] be anywhere near him.
Give Peace a Chance!
But here's a guy who at that time was 91, who is just full of life.
He insisted on [B] coming to that concert.
He drove himself from upstate New York to New York on a Saturday [E] night, drove himself
at 91 because he wanted to be there to pay tribute to John Lennon and to honor Amnesty [B] International.
What John Lennon was to me, Pete Seeger was for Bob Dylan.
So it just was a magical moment and there is [E] Pete Seeger, 92 years old, with his children's choir.
I started thinking to myself, [A] we're doing an album of Bob Dylan songs [D] and one of the
two people who most inspired Bob Dylan is still with us and I got to know him.
So I call up and Pete Seeger is committed to Amnesty.
He was in support of Amnesty when it first started in [E] 1961.
So first [A] of all his reaction is he wants to [D] help because it's Amnesty and yeah, he has
a soft spot [G] for Bob Dylan.
[D] What inspires me about Pete Seeger is he has this [A] incredible spirit and [D] that philosophy
and spirit [G] is to keep active, [D] to be young [A] in your heart.
I thought, [G] hold on a moment, there's a Bob Dylan song about that, [D] it's called Forever Young.
Pete [Bm] is open to it but he says, [Db] I don't think I [D] can sing.
My singing voice is not there anymore [Gbm] but I could read it, [A] I could say it.
So it's agreed that he will [Bbm] recite [Bm] Forever Young.
Well now I [D] know I need a little bit of music.
So I went to my good friend Mark Hudson [G] who [D] produced for Ozzy [A] Osbourne, [G] Aerosmith.
For ten years he was the guy that put together Ringo [D] Starr's records.
Here is this guy [Bm] who was on the forefront of folk [D] music and the beginnings of rock and
roll and the beginnings [Gbm] of Bob Dylan which was the beginnings of the Beatles and it goes
on and on and [A] he goes, here is Pete Seeger, why don't [Gm] we do it together?
[Bm] And I went, okay, no problem.
He [D] came up with an arrangement that was really beautiful, building up [Em] a track that Pete can [A] [G] speak over.
May you always do for others.
To help us out on the track, I called up my friend John [D] Altman who is a great music arranger
[Bm] and film composer [A] and he wrote this [D] beautiful string arrangement for a string quartet.
But [Gbm] even now I need the [A] world's greatest engineer to help me.
[Bbm] The greatest [Bm] engineer in the world bar [Gbm] none is Jeff [D] Emerick and he is the guy who engineered
for the Beatles.
[G] He [D] recorded the strings on Eleanor Rigby [Em] and [A] said, please can you do your [D] magic?
And he did it.
_ [N] We went and we rehearsed with the children in upstate New York.
It was just like something out of my life that I'll never forget.
They're called the Rivertown Kids [E] and they're a bunch of kids, about [D] 20 of them maybe, [Db] aged
from 9 to 12 or [D] 13.
Well the Rivertown Kids are not a choir like you would think a choir should be.
[E] They are [A] kids from a school [D] that loves singing.
They live in the same [G] town as [D] Pete Seeger, Beacon in upstate New York [A] and Pete became
their mentor [D] and sang with them and in fact [G] Pete Seeger and the kids together [D] won the
Grammy for best [A] kids album in 2011.
[Bm] We went up north and Pete [D] laid down the spoken word, the kids laid down their part, it was beautiful.
And we did this on a summer's day.
Pete comes into the studio _ [Em] and he's the coolest customer, full [A] of life, and especially loved
being around the young [D] kids and Pete read the lyrics and performed those lyrics to the
kids as a message to them.
May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others [E] and let others do [A] for you.
[D] May you build a ladder to the stars [G] and climb on [D] every rung and may you stay [A] forever [D] young.
[G] It's like the elder [D] of our tribe.
[A] Forever [G] young.
_ _ [D] _ _
_ May God bless and keep you always, [G] may your wishes [D] all come true, may you always do for
others and [E] let others do [A] for you.
For Human Rights, [D] a little booklet that gives all the chapters [G] of the Universal [D] Declaration
of Human Rights, ordained by the United Nations in [A] 1948.
_ [D] [G] I'm thinking, this is the future.
[D] These kids are now ambassadors [A] for human rights and [Bm] they've got the message and Pete has [D] inspired them.
[A] This is a guy who's an inspiration to all of us.
Forever _ young.
_ [C] _ _ You're never [G] too old [C] to change the world.
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _