Rockin In The Free World

Rockin In The Free World chords and lyrics

Free chords for Rockin In The Free World by Neil Young. Scroll the interactive sheet above or read the chord names inline below.

You can skip the instructions right into the lyrics/chords but note
that Neil plays Em7 (add your pinky on the D on the second string) in
the verses instead of the Em at the beginning of each line, and that he
plays C and Cadd9 in the chorus instead the C here. Enjoy, ameen.
This is the acoustic version of "Rockin' In The Free World" from
Neil Young's "Freedom Album", 1989.
This is a great song, (and the second one I ever learned), not difficult to
play and a great strumming exercise for beginners (information is included
about nearly every beat of the measure).
[INTRO and VERSES:]
-----------------
For the verses you basically need: Em, D and C
but the strumming pattern and fretting actually
involve a G. Here's how to strum the Em measure
(intro and verse alike):
Em
|
(1 +  2  +  3  +  4  +)
DN UP DN UP DN UP DN UP
B  -  $  $  -  $  $  $
Meaning it is an Em chord for the whole measure,
play only the bass note (the E string) on the first
beat (indicated by the 'B' -from Bass- above), the '-' means don't
strum on the strings and a '$' means play the chord indicated
above (Em in this case).
The D and C measure is strummed as follows:
DN UP DN UP DN UP DN UP
$  $  $  $  -  $  $  $
Meaning play a D chord for the first beat then on the
down stroke of the second beat hit the strings without
any fretting (indicated by 'N' above), this would actually
sound as a G (especially that you're most likely to hit only
the D, G, B and E strings). Then directly play a C chord on
the up-stroke of the second beat (in fact you'd ready your fingers
for the C chord while hitting the "G chord"). The same trick is
done at the last up-stroke of the 4th beat where you, again, play the
open strings just before hitting the bass of the Em chord of the
following measure (as indicated in the Em measure).
[Chorus]
--------
As for the chorus: it is G, D, C and Em which is easy to play:
The 3 measures of G D and C are the same:
G/D/C
|
DN UP DN UP DN UP DN UP
$  - ($) $  -  $  $  $
The ($) means optional. In fact you'd interleave all kinds of strumming
patterns here.