Five Feet High and Rising - chords, tab and comments


Released as the flip side of single "I Got Stripes" 1959, it was one of Johnny's very first recordings for Columbia, after leaving Sun Record Company, Memphis.
* Anno 1967: The song appears on "Greatest Hits, Vol.1"
* Anno 1968: a pure young khawaga has discovered Johnny Cash, bought a couple of books with lyrics and notes, and finds this. Picks it out from the notes; he hasn't heard it yet.
* Anno 1970: khawaga buys that "Greatest hits", finds out he covered it right, and forgets it.
* Anno 2017: as the tropical storm "Harvey" leaves parts of southern Texas in ruins, khawaga turns his memories way back 50 years.
Johnny was bread in Dyess Colony, Arkansas. They were not pestered with tropical storms the way Houston and Galveston in Texas are frequently, but floods were regular. It must be discouraging to see crops and property gone with the wind and river, but fighting nature is mankind's fate. This song is the lighter side of it.
This is a typical "boom-chicka-boom" song. The story behind the "boom-chicka-boom" style I've summed up HERE.
A
how high's the water mama?
A
two feet high and rising
A
how high's the water papa?
A
two feet high and rising
A                                A7
we can make it to the road in a homemade boat
           D                  D7
that's the only thing we got left that'll float
     E                      E7
it's already over all the wheat and the oats
E                  A
two feet high and rising
For second verse: raise to key C, for third verse to key D and for fourth verse to key E. Line up the last comment down on low note E.
A major
A
A seventh
A7
D major
D
D seventh
D7
E major
E
E seventh
E7
Johnny Cash