Standard tuning capo 4th fret.
Worked this out from the audio of the first time the song was played publicly, during the Newport Folk
Festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g77X7_GesPo
All of the chords are finger picked apart from the final one which is strummed once.
Notation:
Asus4 x0223x
Dsus4 xxx233
[Intro]
D
[Verse 1]
D A
I could take my time
D G
And I could speed you up
D Asus4
I could pull you in
D G
I can't get enough
Bm A A
Let's go, slip sliding in my veins...
[Chorus 1]
D A
Cos this life is only chains
Bm G
It's nothing like the colours in my dreams
D Asus4
I just wanted to be Steve McQueen
Bm A G
And my horses of English racing green
Bm A D
You and me and British racing green
[Verse 2]
D Asus4
And it can hold us down
D G
It can break your pride
D Asus4
And if it gets too rough
D G
Well you just climb inside
Bm A A
Let's go, slip sliding in my veins...
[Chorus 2]
D A
Cos this life is only chains
Bm G
It's nothing like the colours in my dreams
D Asus4
I just wanted to be Steve McQueen
Bm A G
And my horses of English racing green
Bm A D
You and me and British racing green
[Bridge]
D Dsus4 Asus4
And don't you know
Bm A G
That you and I we're never going home
G Asus4
Since we don't wanna be alone
Bm A G
Here we go
Asus4 Asus4
Sliding in my veins...
[Chorus 3 & Outro]
D Asus4
Cos this life is only chains
Bm G
It's nothing like the colours in my dreams
D Asus4
And I just wanted to be Steve McQueen
Bm A G
And my horses of English racing green
Bm A D
You and me and British racing green
D Asus4
And this life is always the same
Bm G
It's nothing like the colours in our dreams
D Asus4
We just wanted to be Steve McQueen
Bm A G
With our horses of English racing green
Bm A G
You and me in British racing green
Bm A D
You and me, Steve McQueen.