Emmylou Harris – My Name Is Emmett Till (Guitar)

Drop D (D-A-D-G-B-E)
Key
-
Versions (2)

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Chords

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by: Emmylou Harris From: "Hard Bargain" (2011) Tabbed by: maguri Tuning: Standard Sounds like Harris uses an open-D tuning here. If you don't want to retune so many strings: drop-D is close. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Drop-D CHORDS
       D-A-D-G-B-e
D      0-0-0-2-3-2
G      5-5-0-0-3-3
A      x-0-2-2-2-0
Bm     x-2-4-4-3-2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Intro] | D | % | % | % | [Verse 1]
D 
I was born a black boy

   G
My name is Emmett Till

A
Walked this earth for 14 years

G               D
One night I was killed

    D
For speaking to a woman
´G Whose skin was white as dough
         D
That's a sin in Mississippi

    D            A
But how was I to know?
[Verse 2]
    D
I'd come down from Chicago

   G
To visit with my kin

   A
Up there I was a cheeky kid

  G              D
I guess I always been

        D
But the harm they put upon me

        G
Was too hard for what I done

    D
For I was just a black boy

  A             D
I never hurt no one
[Interlude]
D        G     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

D        A     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
[Verse 3]
     D
They took me from my uncle's house

G
Mose Wright was his name

        A                          G
He'd be later standing without hesitation

          D
Point the blame

       D
At the ones who beat and cut me

    G
And shot me with a gun

    D
And threw me in the river

           D                    A
Like I was trash when they were done
[Verse 4]
      D
I was sent back to my mother

         G
At least what was left of me

    A
She kept my casket open

        G                   D
For the whole wide world to see

    D
The awful desecration

        G
And the evidence of hate

    D
You could not recognize me

        A             D
The mutilation was so great
[Bridge]
  Bm
Became a cry for justice then

      A
To be finally fulfilled

      G              D
All because of me, a black boy

   A               D
My name was Emmett Till
[Interlude]
D        G     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

D        A     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

D        G     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

D        A     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
[Verse 5]
         D
Oh, that I had rather lived

           G
Till I was too old to die young

A
Not miss all I left behind

G                   D
All that might have come

D
Summer clouds above my head

    G
The grass beneath my feet

    D
The warmth of a good woman

    D               A
Her kisses soft and sweet
[Verse 6]
   D
Perhaps to be a father

       G
With a black boy of my own

A                            G
Watch him grow into a kinder world

           D
Than I had known

      D
Where no child would be murdered

        G
For the color of his skin

    D
And love would be the only thing

  A                  D
Inside the hearts of men
[Bridge]
     Bm
They say the horror of that night

   A
Is haunting heaven still

      G             D
Where I am one more black boy

   A              D
My name is Emmett Till
[Outro]
D        G     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

D        A     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

D        G     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

D        A     D
Oh oh oh oh oh oh