Ben Harper, The Will to Live
from the album The Will to Live, 1997
Tuning — standard guitar tuning with the bottom E string
dropped to D
Note that Ben plays this with a slide on his weissenborn,
but you can still play this by using your index finger as a barre.
Intro and verse riff:
E————————————————-
B————————————————-
G————————————————-
D————————————————-
A————5—-3—2—0————-5—3—2—0—
D—0—0———————0—0——————
Just before the chorus — i.e. at the words «she’s still alive»
play:
E—————————————-
B—————————3————
G—————————2————
D—————————0————
A————5—3—2—0——0————
D—-0—0——————-0————
and hold the D chord until:
with plenty of distortion
Eb Bb F C
E—————————————————
B—————————————————
G—————————————————
D—1——-8———3——-10——————-
A—1——-8———3——-10——————-
D—1——-8———3——-10——————-
this is the chord progression for the chorus and the end bit,
and the sort of siren sound that Ben gets in the last chorus can
be imitated by bending the B string upwards at the 11th and 13th
frets, provided your amp is going flat out
Lyrics:
I met a girl whose heart was on the right hand side
and upon the left an angel did reside
the told her mother that she never would survive
but she kept the rhythm and is still alive
We must all have the will to live
you got to have the will to live
then i met a man who had to walk with his hands
born into a world he couldn’t stand
blessed with life but cursed as a man
still he walks taller than most of us can
We must all have the will to live
you got to have the will to live
some are born with more and some are born with less
so don’t take for granted the life we’ve been blessed
its hard to understand that we’re only a guest
and each of us shall be put to life’s test
We must all have the will to live
you got to have the will to live
The chord progression for the solo goes
C G D, and maybe I’ll tab out the solo a bit later when I find
some spare time. Enjoy
Martin from New Zealand
[email protected]
