Song: Sons of Liberty
Artist: Frank Turner
Album: Poetry of the Deed
Tuning: Standard
Note: I think there's something going on in the verses before the D chord goes back to
the E chord, but I can't quite pin it down. A-maj just doesn't sound right.
VERSE 1
E D
Once an honest man could go from sunrise to its set
D E
without encountering agents of his state or government.
E D
But a sorry cloud of tyranny has fallen across the land,
D E
brought on by the hollow men, who did not understand
E D
that for centuries our forefathers have fought and often died
D E
to keep themselves unto themselves, to fight the rising tide,
E D
and that if in the smallest battles we surrender to the state,
D E
we enter in a darkness whence we never shall escape.
BRIDGE
F# B E B
A
When they raise their hands up our lives to possess,
F# B E B A
to know our souls, to drag us down, we'll resist.
VERSE 2
E D
Watt Tyler led the people in 1381
D E
to meet the king at Smithfield and issue this demand:
E D
that Winchester’s should be the only law across the land,
D E
the law of old King Alfred's time, of free and honest men.
E D
Because the people then they understood what we have since forgot:
D E
that governments will only work for its own benefit.
E D
And I’d rather stand up naked against the elements alone
D E
than give the hollow men the right to enter in my home.
BRIDGE
F# B E B
A
When they raise their hands up our lives to possess,
F# B E B A
to know our souls, to drag us down, we'll resist.
SOLO:
Chords:
E - E
E - E - E - D - E - E - D
- A - E (x4)
E
CHORUS (First two times no guitar, guitar on third and fourth time)
E D A E
Stand up sons of liberty and fight for what you own.
E D A E
Stand up sons of liberty and fight, fight for your homes.
OUTRO
E D
So if ever a man should ask you for your business, or your name,
D E
tell him to go and fuck himself, tell his friends to do the same.
E D
Because a man who'd trade his liberty for a safe and dreamless sleep
D E
doesn't deserve the both of them, and neither shall he keep.
