FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING - guitar chords and comments
Lyrics without distraction HERE
In January and February 1937, Ohio river went berserk, killed 385 people, left one million people homeless and caused property losses passed half a billion dollars ... more than ten billions after today's exchange rate.The Cash family were among the many who had to evacuate, and 18 years later,Johnny recalled the situation in this song, from a small child's point of view.
It was released 6th of July 1959 as a single with "I Got Stripes" an the other side, and appears as second track on his third Columbia album "Songs of Our Soil" same year and month.
The song is a classic "boom-chicka-boom" (look HERE for the story behind), but I like to slow it down and go a little bit jazz. The chords in brackets may then be omitted, if you want to play it like the original.
A [E7sus4] [E7] how high's the water mama A [F#m] [E7+9...E7] two feet high and risin' A [E7sus4] [E7] how high's the water papa A [Adim] [E7] she said it's two feet high and risin' A A7 we can make it to the road in a homemade boat D [Adim] D7 that's the only thing we got left that'll float B E7 it's already over all the wheat and the oats E A two feet high and risin'
The song starts in A♮, raises to C♮ for the second verse, then to D♮ for the third and ends in E♮ for the last one ... to raise the verses with the water, obviously. Transposing my way of playing this song would have caused a messy page, thus I leave you the basics in A♮ - and all the rest is up to you. Omigosh; you welcome ... also to play it straight forward, if you are not a masochist :-D
A
A7
Adim
E
E7
D6
E7+9
D
D7
Bm
F#m
