Only A Pawn In Their Game
Words and music by Bob Dylan
 
Transcription by Kelvin Sherlock
 
Keep in mind that the chords for the beginning few lines are slightly
different with each verse.  Notes in parentheses () are passing notes
 
*** Capo 2nd Fret ***
 
G                 C    (B A) G         C  (B  A)     G
A bullet from the back of a  bush took Medgar Ever's blood
 
                   C       (B A)  D
A finger fired the trigger to his name
 
(C B) G          C   (B A)  G      C    (B  A)  G
A     handle hid out in the dark a hand set the spark
 
    C    (B   A)  G
Two eyes took the aim
  Behind a  man's brain
But he   can't be blamed
 
     (B C)  D    (C B)    G
He's only a pawn in their game
 
Subsequent verses have an intro more like this:
 
G             Bm     Am              C    (B)   G
The south politician preaches to the poor white man
"You got more than the blacks, don't complain"
"You're better than them ,you been born with white skin", they explain
And the negro's name
is used it is plain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
on the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game

The deputy sheriff the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshalls and cops get the same
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game
 
From the poverty shacks, he loks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoof beats pound in his brain
And he's taught how to walk in a pack, shoot in the back 
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath a hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain't got no name
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game
 
The day Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one that fired the gun
You'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game