Common People Chords

by Pulp
469,288 views, added to favorites 10,530 times
Difficulty: intermediate
Tuning: E A D G B E
Capo: no capo
Author Unregistered.
5 contributors total, last edit on Oct 18, 2022
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Chords

C
Csus4
G
F

Strumming

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Hi guys - here's the chords for Common People by Pulp :-
 
    COMMON PEOPLE by PULP from the album 'Different Class'
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The chords to this song are straightforward - chord change every two bars
and there's only three chords in it. The keyboards on the recording play
the melody line throughout (at least when you can hear it in the quiet
bits) and you can mimic this on the guitar by hammering a sus4 on each of the
chords. The biggest problem in playing this song is that it varies in
speed as it meanders through Jarvis' moods. Lyrics are from the New Pulp Home
Page (http://ns.ph.liv.ac.uk:80/~mbs/plp/pulp_home/) - thanks to Martin Smith.
 
 
[Intro]
C Csus4 C
 
 
[Verse]
C
She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge
 
She studies sculpture at St. Martins College
                     G
That's where I caught her eye
C
She told me that her dad was loaded
 
I said "In that case, I'll have a rum and coca-cola"
                  G
She said "fine" and in a thirty seconds time she said
 
 
[Chorus]
F
"I want to live like common people
                                       C
I want to do whatever common people do
 
I want to sleep with common people
                                             G
I want to sleep with common people like you"
                                                           C
Well, what else could I do? I said "I'll see what I can do"
 
 
[Verse]
C
I took her to a supermarket
                                                                    G
I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere - so it started there
C
I said "Pretend you've got no money"
 
She just laughed and said "Oh, you're so funny"
             G
I said "Yeah, well I can't see someone else smiling in here
 
 
[Chorus]
                    F
Are you sure you want to live like common people
                                           C
You want to see whatever common people see
 
You want to sleep with common people
                                             G
You want to sleep with common people like me"
                                                            C
But she didn't understand, she just smiled and held my hand
 
 
[Bridge]
             C
Rent a flat above your shop, cut your hair and get a job
                        G
Smoke some fags and play some pool, pretend you never went to school
                           C
But still, you'll never get it right, 'cos when you're laid in bed at night
                     G
watching roaches climb the wall, if you called your dad he could stop it all
 
 
[Chorus]
F
You'll never live like common people
                                          C
You'll never do whatever common people do
 
You'll never fail like common people
                                               G
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
                                                                 C
And dance and drink and screw because there's nothing else to do
 
 
[Instrumental]
C  G
C  G
 
 
[Chorus]
F
Sing along with the common people,
                                          C
Sing along and it might just get you thru
 
Laugh along with the common people
                                                 G
Laugh along even though they are laughing at you
 
And the stupid things that you do
                                    C
Because you think that poor is cool
 
 
[Verse]
C
Like a dog lying in a corner, they will bite you and never warn you
         G
look out, they'll tear your insides out
C
'Cos everybody hates a tourist especially one who thinks that it's all
               G
Such a laugh
 
and the chip stains and grease will come out in the bath
 
               F
you will never understand how it feels to live your life
                    C
With no meaning or control and with nowhere left to go
                  G
You are amazed that they exist and they burn so bright
                                              C
Whilst you can only wonder why
 
 
[Bridge]
             C
Rent a flat above your shop, cut your hair and get a job
                        G
Smoke some fags and play some pool, pretend you never went to school
                           C
But still, you'll never get it right, 'cos when you're laid in bed at night
                     G
watching roaches climb the wall, if you called your dad he could stop it all
 
 
[Chorus]
F
You'll never live like common people
                                          C
You'll never do whatever common people do
 
You'll never fail like common people
                                               G
You'll never watch your life slide out of view
                                                                 C
And dance and drink and screw because there's nothing else to do
 
 
I want to live with common people like you
I want to live with common people like you
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8 comments
axumite
Version 3 is more accurate in terms of chord placing and the lyrical content. Just transpose up 3 steps to put it in C.
+2
0olong
Some encoding error, or something, has replaced all the apostrophes in this tab with question marks (? for ') - it's quite distracting. Also, something seems to have gone wrong with the spaces on the chords lines, so if I'm not mistaken they're all doubled; it should be changing to G over 'I', not just before 'her', for example, but even worse is in the chorus where the C and G are so far off to one side that I thought they were missing entirely when I was viewing this on my phone.
+2
thedamon
When you have a sus4, you raise the 3rd up a half step. C chord is C (first) E (third) and G (fifth). So a C chord can be played 032010 or 332013 or any combination of C, E, G. To play Csus4, raise one of the Es to F (half step). So 033010 or 032011 are both right. For an Fsus4, you raise the third (the A) to a Bb. The only A in a common F chord is second fret of G string, so 133311 or X03311.
+1