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John Barleycorn

by British folk song, Traffic · posted by Turkey_Man

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Ad: Want to make John Barleycorn sound awesome on your harmonica? Master tight single notes, rock solid bending and more with easy video lessons → click here.

How to read this tab — notation key
+
Blow note
−
Draw note
b or '
Half-step bend
bb or ''
Two half-step bend
bbb or '''
Three half-step bend
(###)
Chord — relevant hole numbers in parentheses
< or *
Push the button in (chromatic harmonica)

Full reference and posting tips in the tab guide.

Tab
 56     6   6-5  -4   -4   -5 -5  6   -6
There were three men come out of the west
 6-5   6    -5  -4  -4  -4
Their for-tunes for to try
-66   6    6-5   -4  -4  5 -5   6  -6
And these three men made a sol-emn vow
 6-5  6   6-5 -4   -4   -4
John Bar-ley-corn must die

-45     -5      6  -6-7   7-6 -8   -8    -8 -8  
They ploughed they sowed they har-rowed him in
 -6-7     7   7  -8  6   -6 
Throwed clods u-pon his head
-7-6  6    6-5   -4  -4  5  -5  6  -6
And these three men made a sol-emn vow
 6-5  6   6-5 -4   -4  -4
John Bar-ley-corn was dead

They’ve let him lie for a ve-ry long time
Til the rains from hea-ven did fall
And lit-tle Sir John sprung up his head
And so am-azed them all 

They let him stand til mid-sum-mers day
Til he looked both pale and wan
And Lit-tle Sir John’s grown a long long beard
And so be-came a man

They’ve hired men with scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee
They rolled and tied him by the way
Serv-ing him so bar-bar-ous-ly

They’ve hired men with pitch-forks
Who’ve prick-ed him in the heart
And the load-er he has serv-ed him worse than that
For he has bound him to the cart
They-ve wheel-ed him a¬-round and a-round a field
Til they came on-to a pond
And there they made a sol-emn oath 
On poor John Bar-ley-corn

They hired men with crab-tree sticks
To cut him skin from bone
And the miller hhe has ser¬ved him worse than that
For he’s ground him be-tween two stones

And lit-tle Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
And his brand-y in the glass
And lit-tle Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
Proved the strong-est man at last

The hunts-man he can’t hunt the fox
Nor so loud-ly blow his horn
And the tinker he can’t mend a ket-tle or pots
With-out a lit-tle bar-ley-corn

C

Play on a harmonica— watch which holes to blow & draw, with sound

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