Strawbs – To Be Free (Guitar)

    C                                F
The gilt-edged invitation came and I said, "What can this mean?

     C                          F
To attend the coronation as the first guest of the Queen

    G                                  F
And sit upon her right hand, where the Prince is normally seen?"

    C                                F
The maids of honour stared at me and registered surprise

   C                               F
To see a man of such good taste, appear before their eyes

    G                       F
Now bring rather humble, I adopted a disguise

       G                            F
As the Minister of State for Mass Environment Controls

       G                              F
Who condemn the working classes for inhabiting the holes

     G                                   G7
That belong to Queen and Country, but do not permit their souls

      C         G
To be free like me

       C        G
To be free like me

          C      F  C  F
Oh, to be free__

    C                           F
The Perspex chandelier began to melt and slip away

    C                          F
One million candle-powered, it kept the night at bay

          G                          F
While the power station workers were busy making hay

    C                            F
The workers in the fields were engaged in self-defence

        C                                  F
Which involved the use of barbed wire as a self-containing fence

         G                                F
But as a means of self-protection, it was needlessly immense

  G                                     F
I stopped to ask them for a light, they pointed at the sun

      G                                  F
Which raised their hopes of harvesting a better crop than guns

    G                          G7
Can ever mass produce at the expense of anyone

       C         G
Who is free like me

       C         G
Who is free like me

           C      F  C  F
Oh, who is free__

    C                       F
The solitary peasant in his home above the lake

       C                                   F
Raised high on wooden stilts, has made the singular mistake

       G                        F
Of revolutionary conduct at the celebration wake

    C                            F
His urban counterpart engaged in mundane occupation

  C                                  F
Enjoys the chance of laughing at the Queen's humiliation

       G                               F
At the hands of Ministers of State for Rehabilitation

        G                                F
Now the power station worker, though his aim is too disjointed

         G                                 F
Finds himself around the corner, while his gun is never pointed

      G                       G7
He is ever at the ready, he desires to be anointed

       C         G
And be free like me

       C         G
And be free like me

       C      F  C  F
And be free__