Chords for Phil Ochs - Ballad of John Henry Faulk

_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I'll tell you the story of John Henry Falk.
[Db] I'll tell you of his [Bb] trials and the troubled
trail he walked.
_ And [Ebm] I'll tell you of the tyrants, the ones you never see.
[Db] Murder is
the role [Bbm] they play and hatred [Ebm] is their fee.
_ On the TV and the radio John Henry Falk was
known.
[Ab] He talked to [Db] many thousands [Bb] with a mind that was his own. _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] But he could not close
his eyes when the list were passed around.
So he [Db] tried to move the union [Bb] to tear the
blacklist down.
_ _ [Ebm] _ _ _
His friends they tried to warn him he was heading for a fall.
[Db] If he
spoke against the [Bb] blacklist he had no chance at all.
_ _ _ _ [Eb] But he laughed away their warnings
and he laughed away their fears.
[Db] For how could lies destroy the [Eb] work of many [Ebm] honest years? _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Then slowly oh so slowly his life began to change.
[Db]
People would avoid his [F] eyes, his friends
were [Bb] acting strange.
_ And he finally [Eb] saw the power of the hidden poison pen.
[Db] When they
told him that his [Bb] job was through he'd never [Ebm] work again. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ And he could not believe what
his sad eyes had found.
[Db] He stared in disbelief [Bb] as his world come tumbling down. _ _ _
[Ebm] And as the
noose grew tighter at last the trap was clear.
_ [Db] For every place he turned to go that list
[Eb] would soon be there, oh that [Ebm] list.
_ And is [Eb] there any bottom to the fears that grow inside?
[Db] Is there any bottom [Bb] to the hate that you must hide?
_ [Eb] And is there any end to [Ebm] your long road
of [Db] despair?
Is there any end [Eb] to the pain that you [Ebm] must bear? _ _ _ _
_ His wife and children trembled,
the time was running short [Db] when a man of law got on [Bb] their side and took them into court. _
[Eb] And there upon the stand they could not hide behind their lies [Ab] and the cancer of the fascist
[Bb] was displayed [Ebm] before our eyes.
_ Hey you blacklist, you blacklist, you've seen what you have done.
[Db] I've seen the men you've ruined [Bb] and the lives you've tried to run.
_ [Eb] But the one thing that
I've found is the only ones you spare [Db] are those that do not have a [Bb] brain or those that
[Ebm] do not care.
_ And you men who point your fingers and spread your lies around, [Db] you men that
left your souls [Bb] behind to drag us to the ground.
_ [Eb] You can put my name right down there or we'll
not try to hide.
[Db] For if there's one man on the blacklist [Bb] I'll be right [Ebm] there by his side.
For I'd rather go hungry and beg upon the street [Db] than earn my bread on dead men's souls
[Bb] and crawl beneath your feet.
And I [Ebm] will not play your haters game and hate you in return
[Db] for it's only through the love of [Ebm] man the blacklist can be burned.
[Db] For it's only through
the love of [Bb] man the blacklist can be burned. _
_ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ [B] _
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_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ _