Lana Del Rey – Born To Die (Guitar Acoustic)
Key
-
Versions
(6)
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1.0x
Chords
I was playing along to a few live/acoustic versions of the song on YouTube and noticed that the acoustic chord
progression is a bit different to the excellent tabs that have already been provided for the studio version.
This version should be a little easier for vocalists and vocalist-guitarists.
I've included some alterations from different live and acoustic versions at the end, as well as some changes I
make when I perform the song personally, from most-to-least relevant.
Thanks to x_loudvoice and their fantastic tab (Ver. 3) for inspiring this chord submission.
[Intro]
(Piano plays the chorus progression once through before coming to the G chord for the first verse.)
C Em D C
[Verse 1]
G D Feet don't fail me now, G D Take me to that finish line, C Em Yo my heart it breaks, every step that I take, D D But I'm hoping that them gates, they'll tell me that you're mine,
[Verse 2]
G D Walking through the city streets, G D Is it by mistake or design, C Em That I feel so alone, every friday night, D D You make me feel at home, so I tell you you're mine,
[Chorus]
C Em D Don't make me sad, don't make me cry, C Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough, C I don't know why Em D Keep makin' me laugh, let's go get high, C C The road is long, we carry on, try to have fun in the meantime
[Bridge 1]
Em Take a walk on the wild side, D Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain, C You like your girls insane C Em D Choose your last words, this is the last time, C Em Cause you and I, we were born to die
[Verse 3]
G D Lost but now I'm found, G D I can see where once I was blind, C Em I was so confused, as a little child, D D Trying to take what I could get, scared that I'd never find,
All those answers, honey
[Chorus]
C Em D Don't make me sad, don't make me cry, C Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough, C I don't know why Em D Keep makin' me laugh, let's go get high, C C The road is long, we carry on, try to have fun in the meantime
[Bridge 1]
Em Take a walk on the wild side, D Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain, C You like your girls insane C Em D Choose your last words, this is the last time, C C Cause you and I, we were born to die,
[Bridge 2]
Em We were born to die, D We were born to die, C We were born to die,
[Bridge 3]
Am Em So come and take a walk on the wild side, D Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain, D You like your girls insane,
[Chorus]
C Em D Don't make me sad, don't make me cry, C Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough, C I don't know why Em D Keep makin' me laugh, let's go get high, C C The road is long, we carry on, try to have fun in the meantime
[Bridge 1]
Em Take a walk on the wild side, D Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain, C You like your girls insane
[Outro]
C Em D C x2 through 4 measures of non-lexical vocables (ah-ah-ahs, vocal flairing) C Em D C x1 to close
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Alternatives and Personal Preferences~
[Verse 1, 2 & 3]
Some of the chords are arpeggiated, particularly in the opening verses. I like to mix in some fingerpicking
throughout the song to make the guitar parts a little more interesting, and to match the vocal dynamics.
Most of them are fairly simple argpeggios straight up and down the chord shape.
I use the "all-finger G" and a pause before the Ds, with the bottom two strings sounding at once.
G D G D C Em D D
e|--------3-|-------2--|--------3-|-------2--|--------0-|--------0-|-------2--|-------2--|
B|------3---|-------3--|------3---|-------3--|------1---|------0---|-------3--|-------3--|
G|----0-----|-----2----|----0-----|-----2----|----0-----|----0-----|-----2----|-----2----|
D|----------|---0------|----------|---0------|----------|----------|---0------|---0------|
A|----------|----------|----------|----------|--3-------|----------|----------|----------|
E|--3-------|----------|--3-------|----------|----------|--0-------|----------|----------|The optional verse from x_loudvoice's tab (Ver. 3) also works fantastically well here:
G D G D C Em D D E|-------|-------|-------|-------|--------|--------|------2-|---2----| b|-----0-|-----3-|-----0-|-----3-|-----1--|-----0--|-----3--|---3----| g|----0--|----2--|----0--|----2--|----0---|----0---|----2---|---2----| d|---0---|---0---|---0---|---0---|---2----|---2----|---0----|---0----| a|--2----|--0----|--2----|--0----|--3-----|--2-----|--------|--------| e|-3-----|-------|-3-----|-------|-0------|--------|--------|--------|
All credit to x_loudvoice for the above tablature.
x_loudvoice's tab: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/lana_del_rey/born_to_die_chords_1494614
[Chorus and Bridges]
Because the main progression ends on a C, sometimes I'll emd on a Cmaj7 chord before starting the progression
again on the C, just for some variation.
C Em D Cmaj7
e|---0---|---0---|---2---|---0---|
B|---1---|---0---|---3---|---0---|
G|---0---|---0---|---2---|---0---|
D|---2---|---2---|---0---|---2---|
A|---3---|---2---|---x---|---3---|
E|---x---|---0---|---x---|---x---|[Intro, Whole Song]
I play a Dadd4 along with the intro piano in place of the D because I feel it fits the piano a little nicer.
Adding some open Dadd4s and Dsus2s can help make your progression a little more interesting.
Dadd4 Dsus2 e|---2---|---0---| B|---3---|---3---| G|---0---|---2---| D|---0---|---0---| A|---x---|---x---| E|---x---|---x---|
[Bridge 1 & 3]
On some live versions Elizabeth changes "kiss" for "f**k" in the last run through of this part. Not a big
change but it's sexier so I use it. If you don't identify as female and want to make the song gender-neutral,
I find "you make me go insane" fits perfectly as an alternative lyric.
Am Em So come on take a walk on the wild side, D Let me f**k you hard in the pouring rain, D You make me go insane,