Gordon Bok - Sufferin Chords

[Intro]
B   A   B

[Verse]
B
When I was a young man in my prime
        A                          B
I had a woman and her future by my side
B
But the four winds blow and the grass don't grow
           A                                    B
'Round the feet of a man with travellin' in his hide

[Verse]
     E                 F#               B
So I threw off all the shackles and the chains
      E               F#
And I said goodbye to what's-her-name
      B                    E              F#
And I suffered through the cold September rain
B              A             B       A  B
Headed back to freedom once again

[Verse]
B
Well, I tried my luck on a fiery buck
       A                                    B
At the back of a two-room ramblin' ranchin' shack
B
Now there's nothing worse than a buckskin horse
       A                                   B
With a mind of his own and a saddle on his back

[Verse]
    E              F#               B
For riding he just couldn't seem to care
      E                    F#
So he left me there in the dusty air
      B                    E              F#
And I suffered through the insult and the pain
B            A              B       A  B
Landed on my backside once again

[Verse]
B
Well, I broke my back laying down the track
        A                                    B
For the railroad that was making its way out West
B
But I had no feel for the cold hard steel
      A                                      B
And a kind of a job that would give a man no rest

[Verse]
     E                  F#               B
So I said goodbye and I headed North for gold
      E                    F#
And I staked my claim on a salted vein
      B                 E              F#
And I suffered from the hunger and the cold
    B                 A                 B       A  B
And all I found was a young man growing old

[Verse]
B
I drank my fill of the barroom swill
      A                                              B
And I danced 'til the sun was a jewel in the morning sky
B
I used my fist for a goodnight kiss
       A                              B
On the face of a man with evil in his eye

[Verse]
       E                    F#              B
Then I stumbled through the morning feeling ill
       E                       F#
Till I fell with a thud in the rain and the mud
      B                  E             F#
And I suffered through a day or two in jail
       B                   A              B
Then I headed back for the freedom of the trail

[Instrumental]
B   A   B
B   A   B
E  F#  B
E  F#  B  E  F#
B   A B

[Verse]
B
Well, the years have flown, but the times I've known
     A                                          B
Were better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail
B
If a man will try and a man don't lie to himself
         A                B
Life can be one hell of a tale

[Verse]
   E                 F#              B
To change my life, I wouldn't give a dime
    E             F#
And when I go the books will show
       B                E                      F#
That I suffered from my youth right through my prime
    B              A                 B
I'm headed back to freedom, one last time