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A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan - Guitar Chords

Version 1 Version 2
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                A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan
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Written by: Bob Dylan
From: "The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan" (1963)

Tabbed by: maguri
Tuning: Drop-D (D-A-D-G-B-e) + capo 2nd (= E-B-E-A-C#-f#) / 
        Standard (E-A-D-G-B-e)

These are the chords played on the studio version from “Freewheelin’”.
The key is E, but here I suggest using a Drop-D tuning with a capo 2nd fret.
Drop D is easy to do: Just tune down the 6th string (low E) down two steps
to D and leave the other strings as they are.

What makes Dylan's usage of Drop D tuning interesting is the continuous drone 
in the verses. I made a quick demo recording, so you can hear what this 
tab sounds like: -soundcloud-/maguri/a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall

For novice players:
(1) Use Standard Tuning with the voicings suggested below.
(2) Additionally one could just leave out the notes after the slashes - instead 
of G/D play a regular G shape, instead of A/D play a regular A. You can use 
the "Simplify" button at the bottom of the screen to make the slash chords 
disappear from the chord sheet.

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capo: 2nd fret
tuning: Drop D
key: E

For original chords without capo transpose these chords +2 to E.

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CHORDS

Tuning  Drop D                             Standard
        D-A-D-G-B-e                        E-A-D-G-B-e
D       0-0-0-2-3-2                        x-x-0-2-3-2
A       2-0-2-2-2(0)                       x-0-2-2-2-0
G      (0)2-0-0-3-3                        3-x-0-0-0-3
G/D     0-0-0-4-3-3 (actually: Gadd2/D)    x-x-0-0-0-3
A/D     0-0-0-6-5-5 (actually: Aadd4/D)    x-x-0-2-2-0
D*      0-0-0-7-7-5                        x-x-0-7-7-5

D* - this voicing is used fleetingly in the last bar (before the final chord)

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[Intro]
| D | % | G/D | D |
| D | % | % |


[Verse] 1
    D                       G/D       D
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
    D                                     A
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
     G/D                     A/D          D
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
     G/D                        A/D         D
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
     G/D                      A/D       D
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
     G/D                    A/D        D
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
          G/D                       A/D        D
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
           D                A            D                G
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
       D        A             [ D ]
It’s a hard rai---n’s a-gonna fall


[Interlude]
| D | % | G | D | % | % | % |


[Verse] 2
    D                    G         D
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
    D                                  A
And what did you see, my darling young one?
        G/D                    A/D         D
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
        G/D                      A/D    D
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
  G/D                     A/D             D
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
        G/D                         A/D       D
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
  G/D                    A/D          D
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
      G/D                        A/D              D
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
      G/D                          A/D            D
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
           D                A            D                G
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
           D        A             [ D ]
And it’s a hard rai---n’s a-gonna fall


[Interlude] 
| D | % | G | D | % | % | % |


[Verse] 3
    D                     G         D
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
    D                                   A
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
            G/D                     A/D          D
I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warnin’
            G/D                       A/D             D
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
        G/D                        A/D          D
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
        G/D                         A/D    D
I heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
        G/D                        A/D         D
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
            G/D                A/D         D
I heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
            G/D                  A/D          D
I heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
           D            A            D            G
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
       D        A             [ D ]
It’s a hard rai---n’s a-gonna fall


[Interlude]
| D | % | G | D | % | % | % |


[Verse] 4
    D                    G         D
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?          [Dylan actually sings "what did you meet"]
D                                  A
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
  G/D                 A/D         D
I met a young child beside a dead pony
  G/D                 A/D            D
I met a white man who walked a black dog
  G/D                     A/D      D
I met a young woman whose body was burning
  G/D                   A/D       D
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
  G/D                 A/D        D
I met one man who was wounded in love
  G/D                     A/D        D
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
           D            A            D            G
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
       D        A             [ D ]
It’s a hard rai---n’s a-gonna fall


[Interlude]
| D | % | G | D | % | % | % | % | % |


[Verse] 5
     D                      G        | D | G | D | % | 
And, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
     D                                    A
And, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
      G/D                      A/D           D
I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
     G/D                       A/D          D
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
          G/D                       A/D           D
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
          G/D                   A/D            D
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
          G/D                          A/D        D
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
        G/D                   A/D          D
And the executioner’s face is always well hidden
      G/D                       A/D          D
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten
      G/D                       A/D         D
Where black is the color, where none is the number
         G/D                      A/D          D
And I’ll tell it and speak it and think it and breathe it
    G/D                          A/D           D
And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it
          G/D                  A/D         D
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
         G/D                 A/D          D
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
           D            A            D                G
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
           D        A             [ D ]
It’s a hard rai---n’s a-gonna fall


[Coda]
| D | % | G | D | % |  D  |  D
                    (timing becomes fuzzy here)
We also have 173 songs by Bob Dylan

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