Arlo Guthrie – Presidential Rag (Guitar Intro Tab)

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Chords

Notes: On Am and Dm chords add and take away a G note (I like to use the open 3rd string) for the riff in the song. The Am7 or Dm add G are on the & beats after 2 and 3. Durign the main body, stay on Am one measure at the end of every stanza, and one at the beginnign of a new one (2 consecutively) if in the middle of a block of text, play 3 consecutive measures if there's a one line space. Spoken: You know, took me a long time to get around to writin' a Watergate song. I think because...mainly because in the beginning of Watergate it was pretty funny, you know? So I said "oh! I'm gonna write one of them funny Watergate..." you know:
C   F#dim  F
Watergate, Watergate but
it sorta got past the point of bein' funny, you know, and went on to new bigger and better things. And then I though "oh, I better write one of those satyrical ballads." You know, like:
E  E7
(Played satyrically, like a ballad)
but got past that point. So I never wrote a Watergate song. Until one day, a little while ago, I was sitting around and I forgot all about Watergate. And I was sittin' around playin' the piano and all of a sudden this song jumped out and wrote itself down. The next day Spiro resigned. So I been writing a lot since! [Intro] Am
Am           C
You said you didn't know

         Dm
That the cats with the bugs were there

F               G                  E7               Am
And you'd never go along with that kind of stuff nowhere

Am                      C
But that just isn't the point, man

           Dm
That's the wrong wrong way to go

   F                     G                   E7                   Am
If you didn't know about that one, well then what else don't you know?

Am                     C
You said that you were lied to

     Dm
Well that ain't hard too see

F                      G                    E7                   Am
But you must have been fooled again by your friends across the sea

Am                 C                    Dm
And maybe you were fooled again by your people here at home

       F            G
'Cause nobody could talk like you

    E7                 Am
And know what's going on

  Am                C
Nobody elected your family

       Dm
And we didn't elect your friends

       F                G
No one voted for your advisors

      E7           Am
And nobody wants amends

Am                C             Dm
You're the one we voted for, so you must take the blame

    F             G          E7             Am
For handing out authority to men who are insane

Am                     C                  Dm
You say it's all fixed up now; you've got new guys on the line

F                    G                 E7                 Am
But you had better remember this while you still got the time

Am                C                 Dm
Mothers still are weeping for their boys that went to war

    F                 G               E7                    Am
and fathers are still asking what the whole damn thing was for

    Am               C           Dm
And people still are hungry, and people still are poor

       F              G                     E7                Am
And an honest week of work these days don't feed the kids no more

Am                     C
Schools are still like prisons

       Dm
Cuz we don't learn how to live

    F         G                E7              Am
And everybody wants to take, nobody wants to give

Am              C              Dm
Yes you'll be remembered, be remembered very well

F               G                  E7               Am
And if I live a long life, oh, the stories I could tell!

Am                  C           Dm
Of men and wars and poverty. Of sickness and of greed

     F
Hell yes

            G               E7             Am
You'll be remembered, be remembered very well

Am           C
You said you didn't know

         Dm
That the cats with the bugs were there

F               G                  E7              Am
And you'd never go along with that kind of stuff nowhere

Am                      C
But that just isn't the point man

           Dm
That's the wrong, wrong way to go

   F                     G
If you didn't know about that one

          E7                  Am
Well then what else don't you know?