Intro:

C F G G
C F G G


Verse 1:

C                                         F                       G               G
The service went the way it should have gone no one talked to loud or cried too long except your momma's new 

C                   F               G                          G
boyfriend. He went on and on and on about the country and the hero you'd become.

C                      F                           G                          G
Well Just about then a truck backfired and all the boys they flinched their heads. Yea it choked me

C           F                           G                     G
up I guess. Been home a month now and I still can't get no rest.


Chorus:

C                          F                     G             G
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend.

C                          F                    G              G
Nothing much to say except sorry it turned out like it did

F                   G                    C                     F
Twenty-one guns for twenty-one years and American flags in the wind.

F                          G                 C
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend


Harmonica Break:
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C F G G


Verse 2: (you will have to figure out the timing on that third line, he crams a lot of words in)

C                    F                  G                      G
Barbecue grills and lawnmowers kids on four-wheelers ice cream trucks Yea they buried you on a 

C         F                         G                               G
Saturday, Georgia lost to Tennessee you would have liked that I know

C                         F                                   G                              G
Afterwards we went to OCharleys and your mommas boyfriend got drunk saying it should of been me well I wish it
  
C    F          G                                 G
was, him I mean so I went home and got drunk and watched the TV


Chorus:

C                          F                     G          G
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend.

C                          F                    G            G
Nothing much to say except sorry it turned out like it did

F                   G                    C                     F
Twenty-one guns for twenty-one years and American flags in the wind.

F                          G                 C
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend



    Am                                                           F
Well there is only one road that leads out of this town and it comes right back

                  C                          G
So I just drive in circles, circles, and I try not to blow my stack.

Am                                                F
Hide at the mall on the motor mile, its just as lonesome as the sea

          C                                                     G
Man the girls round here, the girls round here they're just as hopeless as they used to be.


C F G G
C F G G



Verse 3:

    C            F                G              G   
So tie a yellow ribbon round the old hackberry tree and 

          C            F                      G                                G
tamp the dirt down.  You all go on home now, there ain't nothing left here to see



Chorus

C                          F                     G          G
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend.

C                          F                    G            G
Nothing much to say except sorry it turned out like it did

F                   G                    C                     F
Twenty-one guns for twenty-one years and American flags in the wind.

F                          G                 C
Standing by the grave of a dearly departed friend