Ballad of the Kingsmen
By Todd Snider
Album: East Nashville Skyline
Tabbed By Larry Mofle
rmofle at satx.rr.com
8/26/2004

Capo 2

G  D  C

    G             D                    C
The Kingsmen came together in a garage, they could hardly even play
    G                           D                                         C
But they practiced night and day pretty soon they got to where they could really play that song 
Louie, Louie
    G                                    D  
So, they saved up all the money from the shows, 
                           C
went in to one of them studios and gave their version of the song a try
G     D                             C 
Now, I don't know the words to that song Louie, Louie and I'm pretty sure the singer for the 
G                               D                            C 
Kingsmen didn't know 'em either, if he did know 'em he didn't get 'em right on the record 
                                              G             D              C            D
Cause on the record they sound jumbled in his jaw? It says, me think of me girl oh so constantly
  G       D             C        D
Ahmayaaah makaaaah aahh ooohoooh aaaaah
G                    D                         C
Well, that last part scared everybody from the PTA to the FBI
         G                               D                               C
You see, the kids had been going kind of crazy lately and it seemed like nobody could figure out why, 
            G                        D                                         C
So they decided to form a coalition, launch an investigation, you know for the children, 
they at least had to try
G                 D                 
To figure out the words to Louie, Louie 


Chorus
         G    C   G            C
It's the feel good hit of this endless summer
G             A7             D 
It gets these kids out of control
C       D            G             C
Singin along to that star spangled bummer, 
G     D             G
Hail, hail rock and roll


G               D                     C 
Marilyn Manson's real name isn't even Marilyn Manson, he's a skinny public high school 
G                D                      C       
Kid from Florida, not some monster from out of this world and like of a lot other skinny long hair public 
G               D                                       C
High school kids he was sick of getting beaten up by the pulling guard all week only to go out on the 
weekend, and watch the 
G                            D       C  
Quarterback get all the girls so, he formed a band man
     G               D        C       
Now' he gets all the girls, a few years later a couple of latchkey kids go tragically 
G                                   D                                          C
Mad and everybody's standing around the television store at the mall trying to figure out what went wrong, 
this guy says, 
              G                                 D                                           C
you think the life of a kid going to high school could've gotten so bad this other guy says nah, 
C
It's just the words to one of them goddamn Marilyn Manson songs, you know the one


Chorus


    G               D                           C 
You know, every ten years or so our country and some other little country, 
we start firing all of our newest weapons 
   G                       D                          C
At each other for some reason or another, right or wrong, like it or not, it happens, and when it happens 
           G                        D                     C
People get shot and when people get shot, they show it on tv a lot every night at six o clock
                   G                            D                             C
And you don't even have to be eighteen to see it you don't even have to be in first grade, 
first grade where they teach the kid pride
     G                             D                          C
They tell him he'll need to thrive, in a world where only the strong will survive, 
so he's taught the art of more
       G                       D                            C 
To compare to and to keep score Monday thru Friday while he stares at the floor til' 
Sunday they make him go to 
G                     D                                         C
School once more only this time they make him wear a suit and a tie and listen to some guy 
who claims to know where people go 
     G                               D                          C
When they die tell him that only the meek are gonna inherit the earth Well s**t, 
by this time the kid doesn't know what anything 
   G                              D                  C  
Is worth, now brothers and sisters I am only one guy and I don't even know the words 
to that song Louie, Louie
G                            D                               C
but I can tell you right now without batting an eye that the next time some latchkey kid goes wrong
   C                    
It aint gonna be cause that Eminem gets to say the word Fag in his song
    G                                   D                             C
And I'm not trying to preach to ya either, I'm just trying to sing to ya too, you know string a 
few words together

G        D   C
Hey kids...
            G    D   C
Lets get it on,
           G    D   C
Lets get it on