Rainbow Song (alternate chords)
Written by Dewey Bunnell, ©1973

NOTE: To feel the real sound of this song (one of my favorites) you have to use an open tuning. As well as on the original recording, you can easily notice this in "Live at Radio Bremen", and America's 1975 video, where you can hear and see Dewey tuning up his 6 string acoustic guitar to:

D B G D B E

Doing it like this, the finger positions become as shown below and you have to play, on the verse, Em7 with two different inversions: the first two strokes must be on the first (Em7) and the third, played as a staccato, must be on the second (Em7^).

Enjoy!

Fede of Distillery

Em7        Em7^       F#m7       Bm              
------     ------     x-----     x-----     
|||*||4fr  ||||*|8fr  ||||*|5fr  ||||*|3fr 
|**|||     ||**||     |||*||     ||**|*    
||||||     ||||||     |**|||     ||||||    

Intro: Em7 |Em7^|  F#m7  (4 times)

Em7           |Em7^| F#m7                Em7      |Em7^| F#m7
Window frames  a   picture of winter time within my   room
Em7            |Em7^| F#m7                    Em7  |Em7^|      F#m7
Sometimes then I    laugh at the funny times we   had   in school
        Em7            F#m7
Blowing leaves, broken dreams
     Em7           F#m7 Em7       F#m7 Em7
Seventeen, dancing queen, dancing queen

Bm
I am asleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hiding from the wake of the tide
Bm
I am asleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hoping for the rest of the ride

Em7 |Em7^|  F#m7  Em7 |Em7^|  F#m7

Em7          |Em7^| F#m7                 Em7         |Em7^| F#m7
Can you feel it   moving inside of you? Can you let it   go?
Em7              |Em7^| F#m7                   Em7            |Em7^| F#m7
The purple ghost of   England in winter time, and who I used to   know
        Em7            F#m7
Blowing leaves, broken dreams
     Em7           F#m7 Em7       F#m7 Em7
Seventeen, dancing queen, dancing queen

Bm7
I am asleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hiding from the wake of the tide
Bm7
I am a sleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hoping for the rest of the ride

Em7 |Em7^|  F#m7  (4 times)

        Em7            F#m7
Blowing leaves, broken dreams
     Em7           F#m7 Em7       F#m7 Em7
Seventeen, dancing queen, dancing queen

Bm7
I am asleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hiding from the wake of the tide
Bm7
I am asleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hoping for the rest of the ride
Bm7
I am asleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hiding from the wake of the tide
Bm7
I am asleep on a rainbow
Em7
Hoping for the rest of the ride

Click here for the original version of these chords.

Last Revised: 16 February 2008