The Rivers Chords
The Rivers by Cheryl Wheeler is a moderately challenging guitar song played in the key of G with a capo on the 4st fret. It uses the chords G, D, C, Em and Am. Use the transpose and diagram tools on this page to change the key, see each shape, or simplify the chords.
Intro: G D G C G D G
D G C
In the afternoon light, riding around
G D
Riding my bike all over town
G D C
They said on TV, that out west right now
G D G
The rivers can poison us
D G C
And it was hard to believe, watching it win
G D
Kept coming down and kept coming in
G D Em
And finally reached where our great cities stand
C D G
Now the rivers can poison us
Am D
And once more we find out, in case we forgot
G Em
Just who is strong here and just who is not
Am D
As if we could hand her some route that we'd plot
G D G
And now the rivers can poison us
D G C
It lifted the trash, it lifted the gold
G D
And lifted the lives too weak to hold
G D C
All swept into some diluvian fold
G D G
The rivers can poison us
D G C
And it's like all that we've done, has seeped from the sea
G D
It's been, take what you want and leave what you leave
G D Em
We sure have been pigs since Adam and Eve
C D G
Now the rivers can poison us
Am D
And I love the thought of us all being one
G Em
But kids in the third grade pack needles and guns
Am D
And now we might die if we lie in the sun
G D G
And the rivers can poison us
D G C
Salt of the earth, ebb and the flow
G D
All that we have and more than we know
G D C
Laden with garbage from decades ago
G D G
The rivers can poison us
D G C
Well, maybe one day the great salty blue
G D
Will swallow us up with all that we knew
G D Em
And things will start over like they always do
C D G D Em
When the rivers can poison us
C D G
The rivers can poison us