Young Neil - Keep On Rocking In The Free World Chords & Tabs

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:

        EADGBEEADGBE
Em7022030Em      022000 
D 000323        A       x02220
C       x32010G/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
[ Tab from: https://www.guitartabs.cc/tabs/y/young_neil/keep_on_rocking_in_the_free_world_tab.html ]
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 |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

 

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 worldX 4

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

     AG/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 ...