American Child
Words & Music by John Denver
from Autograph (1980)
Unusual chords:
Esus4 : |222||
Gmaj7 : 32|||2
D Esus4 E F G A
G D A G D A
Goin' up to Alaska, up to the land of the Midnight Sun
G F C A
where the whale and polar bear run o'er the icy blue sea
G D A G D A
Goin' up to Alaska, up to the north and the pioneer life
G F C D
where courage and strength still survive and a man can be free
G
American Child does the call of the wild
F C
ever sing thru the mist of your dreams?
G Gmaj7 G7
Does it fly with the wind when you waken again?
C D
When it's gone do you know what it means?
G
Can you picture the time when a man had to find
F C
his own way through an unbroken land
G Gmaj7 G7
Before the machine changed the blue and the green
C D
to something you can't understand?
G
American Child there's a burning inside
F C
you that calls you away through the cold
G Gmaj7 G7
to come back again to all that you've been
C D
Can't you see that it's time to come home
G
To the flowers and the trees and the rivers and the seas
F C
and the earth who's the mother of all?
G Gmaj7 G7
A promise once made will it shine, will it fade
C A
will we rise with the vision or fall?
G D A G D A
Goin' up to Alaska, up to the land of the Midnight Sun
G F C A
where the whale and polar bear run o'er the icy blue sea
G D A G D A
Goin' up to Alaska, up to the north and the pioneer life
G F C
where courage and strength still survive and a man can be free
D
Men can be free
G D G D G D
Goin' up to Alaska, goin' up to Alaska, goin' up to Alaska