The Boatman Chords

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Difficulty:	beginner
Tuning:	E A D G B E
Capo:	no capo

Author londonmike2010 [a] 86.

2 contributors total, last edit on Jan 16, 2020

Chords

Strumming

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[Chorus]
  E                                      D             E
If I could choose the life I please then I would be a boatman
  E                                   D                E
On the canals and the rivers free no hasty words are spoken
  D                             A
My only law is the river breeze that takes me to the open seas
  E                                      D             E
If I could choose the life I please then I would be a boatman
 
[Chorus]
  E                                      D             E
If I could choose the life I please then I would be a rover
  E                                     D             E
And if the roads was not for me then I would choose another
  D                             A
Mountains and the valleys deep where I would take this weary feet
  E                                      D             E
If I could choose the life I please then I would be a rover
 
[Verse]
Bm                      A            Bm                   A
But these things are so hard for me, I cannot choose my own destiny
 Bm                   A                   E
And all things that I want to see are so unclean
  E                                            D          E
Well I wish I could choose the life I please, I am not a free man
  E                            D            E
Others rule my destiny but my will is never broken
 
[Verse]
 Bm             A         Bm                A
I know some day I will be everything that I dreamed I'd be
 E                                      D              E
And when I've lived the life I please then I will be a free man
 Bm             A         Bm                A
I know some day I will be everything that I dreamed I'd be
 E                                     D               E
And when I've lived the life I please then I will be a free man
 E                                     D               E
And when I've lived the life I please then I will be a free man
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The Boatman – Levellers

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"The Boatman"

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6 comments

Played with capo on 2

Check out the live acoustic version of this - search for 'The Boatman (World Cafe Version)NPR' I'll transcribe the chords sometime but Mark and Simon both play with a capo on the second fret and the chords are transposed down from the sequence here (and from the published version of the music which I also have). Main chords are therefore D and Cadd9, then Am and G.

I dropped it to D then Capo II to get back to E to match the video but makes it easy to riff on the D