Todd Snider

Ballad Of The Kingsmen(Chords)

Todd Snider

Key: G#

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Capo on 2nd fret
	        
 
G  D  C 
 
    G             D                    C 
The Kingsmen came together in a garage, they could hardly even play 
    G                           D                                         C 
But they practiced night and day pretty soon they got to where they could really play that song Louie, Louie 
    G                                    D                             C 
So, they saved up all the money from the shows, went in to one of them studios and gave their version of the song a try 
G     D                             C  
Now, I don't know the words to that song Louie, Louie and I'm pretty sure the singer for the  
G                               D                            C  
Kingsmen didn't know ?em either, if he did know ?em he didn't get ?em right on the record  
                                              G             D              C            D 
Cause on the record they sound jumbled in his jaw? It says, me think of me girl oh so constantly 
  G       D             C        D 
Ahmayaaah makaaaah aahh ooohoooh aaaaah 
G                    D                         C 
Well, that last part scared everybody from the PTA to the FBI 
         G                               D                               C 
You see, the kids had been going kind of crazy lately and it seemed like nobody could figure out why,  
            G                        D                                         C 
So they decided to form a coalition, launch an investigation, you know for the children, they at least had to try 
G                 D                  
To figure out the words to Louie, Louie  
 
 
Chorus 
         G    C   G            C 
It's the feel good hit of this endless summer 
G             A7             D  
It gets these kids out of control 
C       D            G             C 
Singin along to that star spangled bummer,  
G     D             G 
Hail, hail rock and roll 
 
 
G               D                     C  
Marilyn Manson?s real name isn't even Marilyn Manson, he's a skinny public high school  
G                D                      C        
Kid from Florida, not some monster from out of this world and like of a lot other skinny long hair public  
G               D                                       C 
High school kids he was sick of getting beaten up by the pulling guard all week only to go out on the weekend, and watch the  
G                            D       C   
Quarterback get all the girls so, he formed a band man 
     G               D        C        
Now' he gets all the girls, a few years later a couple of latchkey kids go tragically  
G                                   D                                          C 
Mad and everybody's standing around the television store at the mall trying to figure out what went wrong, this guy says,  
              G                                 D                                           C 
you think the life of a kid going to high school could've gotten so bad this other guy says nah,  
C 
It's just the words to one of them goddamn Marilyn Manson songs, you know the one 
 
 
Chorus 
 
 
    G               D                           C  
You know, every ten years or so our country and some other little country, we start firing all of our newest weapons  
   G                       D                          C 
At each other for some reason or another, right or wrong, like it or not, it happens, and when it happens  
           G                        D                     C 
People get shot and when people get shot, they show it on tv a lot every night at six o clock 
                   G                            D                             C 
And you don't even have to be eighteen to see it you don't even have to be in first grade,  
first grade where they teach the kid pride 
     G                             D                          C 
They tell him he'll need to thrive, in a world where only the strong will survive, so he's taught the art of more 
       G                       D                            C  
To compare to and to keep score Monday thru Friday while he stares at the floor til' Sunday they make him go to  
G                     D                                         C 
School once more only this time they make him wear a suit and a tie and listen to some guy who claims to know where people go  
     G                               D                          C 
When they die tell him that only the meek are gonna inherit the earth Well shit, by this time the kid doesn't know what anything  
   G                              D                  C   
Is worth, now brothers and sisters I am only one guy and I don't even know the words to that song Louie, Louie 
G                            D                               C 
but I can tell you right now without batting an eye that the next time some latchkey kid goes wrong 
   C                     
It aint gonna be cause that Eminem gets to say the word Fag in his song 
    G                                   D                             C 
And I'm not trying to preach to ya either, I'm just trying to sing to ya too, you know string a few words together 
 
G        D   C 
Hey kids... 
            G    D   C 
Lets get it on, 
           G    D   C 
Lets get it on 
  
 

	        

Written by Todd Snider

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