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Bummer chords by 
Harry Chapin 
N/A•2 views•
Key: D minor•BPM: 128
Intro 1
Am
D
Am
D
Am
D
Am
D
Am
C
D
E
D
Am
Verse 1
Am
D
His
Am
D
Am
D
C
D
E
D
Am
C
D
E
Esus4
A
Am
D
Am
mama was a midnight woman
C
Am
His daddy was a drifter drummer
C
Am
One night they put it together
Bm
C
Nine months later came the
D
E
little black bummer
Verse 2
Esus4
E
Am
He was a laid back
lump in the cradle
C
Am
Chewing the paint chips
that fell from the ceiling
C
Am
Whenever he cried he
got a fist in his face
Bm
C
D
So he learned not to show
E
Esus4
E
his feeling s
Am
Verse 3
He was a pig- tail puller in grammer school
C
Am
Left back twice by the seventh grade
C
Am
D
Am
Sniffing glue in Ju nior High
Bm
C
D
E
And the first one in school to get laid
Verse 4
Esus4
E
He was a weed-
Am
speed pusher at fifteen
C
Am
D
He was mainlining skag a year later
C
Am
He'd started pimping
when they put him away
Bm
C
D
E
In jail he changed from a junkie to a hater
Verse 5
C
And just like the man from
Am
the precinct said:
D
"Put him away,
you better kill him instead.
Bb
A bummer like that is better of dead
E
F
Someday they're gonna have
E
Am
to put a bullet in his head."
Verse 6
Am
D
Am
They threw him back on the street,
he robbed an A & P
C
Am
He didn't blink at the buddy
that he shafted
C
Am
And just about the time they
would have caught him too
Bm
C
D
He had the damn good fortune
E
to get drafted
Interlude 1
E
Am
Verse 7
Am
He was A- One bait for Vietnam,
D
Am
you see they needed more bodies in a hurry
He was a cinch to train cause
all they had to do
Bm
C
D
E
Was to figure how to funnel his fury
Verse 8
Esus4
Am
They put him in a
D
Am
tank near the D M Z
C
Am
To catch the gooks slipping
over the border
D
They said his mission was
Am
to Search and Destroy
Bm
C
D
And for once he followed
E
Esus4
and or der
Am
Verse 9
One sweat- soaked day
Am
in the Yung- Po Valley
Am
With the ground still steam
E
ing from the rain
There was a bloody little battle
that didn't mean nothing
E
Am
Except to the few that remained
Verse 10
Am
You see a couple hundred slants had
Am
trapped the other five tanks
E
And had started to pick off the crews
D
When he came on the scene
E
and it really did seem
E
Am
This is why he'd paid those dues
E
It was something
Verse 11
Am
like
a butcher going berserk
E
Or a sane man acting like a fool
Or the bravest thing that
a man had ever done
Am
Or a madman blowing his cool
Verse 12
Am
Well he came on through like
a knife through butter
E
Or a scythe sweeping through the grass
Or to say it like the man would
have said it himself:
"Just a big black bastard
Am
kicking as s!"
Bm
And
Verse 13
C
just like the man from
Am
the precinct said:
D
"Put him away,
you better kill him instead.
Bb
A bummer like that is better of dead
E
F
Someday they're gonna have to put
E
Am
a bullet in his head."
Interlude 2
Am
D
Am
E
Verse 14
Am
When it was over
and the smoke had cleared
C
Am
There were a lot of V C bodies in the mud
And when the rescued men came
D
Am
over for the very first time
Bm
C
They found him smiling as he
D
lay in his blood
E
Verse 15
Esus4
E
Am
They picked up the pieces and
they stitched him back together
C
Am
He pulled through though they
Am
thought he was a goner
C
Am
And it force them to give him
what they said they would
Bm
C
Six purple hearts and the
D
E
Medal of Honor
Esus4
E
Am
D
Am
Verse 16
Of course he slouched
as the chief white honkey said:
"Service beyond the call of duty"
But the first soft thought was passing
through his mind
C
D
E
"My medal is a Mother of a
beauty!"
Esus4
Am
D
Verse 17
Am
He got a couple of jobs with
the ribbon on his chest
And though he tried he really
couldn't do 'em
There was only a couple of things
that he was really trained for
Bm
C
D
E
And he found himself drifting back to
Esus4
Am
Am
'em
Am
Am
Am
Just about the time he was
ready to break
Am
The V A stopped sending
E
him his checks
E
Just a matter of time 'cause
E
there was no doubt
E
About what he was going to do next
Verse 18
Am
Am
It ended up one night
in a grocery store
E
Gun in hand and nine cops at the door
E
And when his last battle was over
He lay crumpled and broken
Am
Bm
on the floor
Verse 19
C
And just like the man from
Am
the precinct said:
D
"Put him away,
you better kill him instead.
Bb
A bummer like that is better of dead
E
F
E
Someday they're gonna have to put a bul
E
Am
let in his head."
Interlude 3
E
Am
Verse 20
Am
Well he'd breathed his last,
but ten minutes past
C
Am
Am
Before they dared to enter the place
And when they flipped his
riddled body over they found
Bm
C
D
E
His second smile frozen on his face
Verse 21
Am
They found his gun where
Am
he'd thrown it
C
Am
There was something else
Am
clenched in his fist
C
Am
And when they pried his fingers open
they found the Medal of Honor
Bm
C
D
And the Sergeant said: "Where in
E
the hell he get this?"
E
Am
Verse 22
There was a stew about
burying him in Arlington
So they shipped him in box to Fayette
And they kind of stashed him in
a grave in the county plot
C
D
The kind we remember
E
Esus4
to forget
Verse 23
Am
And just like the man from
the precinct said:
D
"Put him away,
you better kill him instead.
Bb
A bummer like that is better of dead
E
F
Someday they're gonna have
E
E
to put a bullet in his head."
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