Babylon | Chords + Lyrics (capo 1)
Intro (0:00)
||: Dmaj9/F# | G :||
Verse 1 (0:19)
||: Dmaj9/F# | G :||
Friday night I’m going nowhere, all the lights are changing green to red.
Turning over TV stations, situations running through my head.
Looking back through time, you know it’s clear that I’ve been blind, I’ve been a fool.
| Dmaj9/F# | G | Dmaj9/F# | G | Em Emadd9 | Emadd9 |
To open up my heart to all that jealousy, that bitterness, that ridicule.
Verse 2 (0:57)
||: Dmaj9/F# | G | Dmaj9/F# | G :||
Saturday I’m running wild and all the lights are changing, red to green.
Moving through the crowd I’m pushing chemicals all rushing in my bloodstream.
Only wish that you were here, you know I’m seeing it so clear, I’ve been afraid.
To show you how I really feel, admit to some of those bad mistakes I’ve made.
Chorus 1 (1:32)
| D | A | Em | F#m |
If you want it, come and get it, crying out loud.
| D | A | Em | G |
The love that I was, giving you was, never in doubt.
| D | A | Em | A |
Let go of your heart, let go of your head and feel it now.
| D | A | Em | A | A |
Let go of your heart, let go of your head and feel it now.
||: Dmaj9/F# | G :|| x4
Babylon, Babylon, Babylon.
Verse 3 (2:25)
||: Dmaj9/F# | G | Dmaj9/F# | G :||
Sunday all the lights of London, shining sky is fading red to blue.
I’m kicking through the Autumn leaves and wondering where it is you might be going to.
Turning back for home, you know I’m feeling so alone, I can’t believe.
Climbing on the stair, I turn around to see you smiling there, in front of me.
Chorus 2 (3:00)
| D | A | Em | F#m |
And if you want it, come and get it, crying out loud.
| D | A | Em | G |
The love that I was, giving you was, never in doubt.
| D | A | Em | A |
Let go of your heart, let go of your head and feel it now.
| D | A | Em | A13 |
Let go of your heart, let go of your head and feel it now.
| D | A | Em | A13 |
Let go of your heart, let go of your head and feel it now.
| D | A | Em | A | A |
Let go of your heart, let go of your head and feel it now.
||: Dmaj9/F# | G :|| x5
Babylon, Babylon, Babylon, Babylon, Babylon, why?
Outro (4:15)
| Dmaj9/F# | Dmaj9/F# | D/F# | Dmaj7 |
You can learn how to play Babylon!
Above you saw chords and lyrics for David Gray‘s Babylon and even though they are correct, they are so complex that they alone don’t tell the whole story of how to play the song.
With a capo on fret 1, think of the intro as a loop between Dmaj9/F# and a G chord. If we want to be extremely picky, we could call the first beat of bar 2 a G5, then a G. However, it wouldn’t help much.
To get this riff right, you need exact TAB, you find this below in the guitar lesson taken from the intermediate course.
The chords for verse 1 are almost the same as the intro, only at the end do we go to an Em, which I modified into an Emadd9.
Verse 2 is just the same riff throughout.
The chorus is varied every fourth bar. This drives the progression forward and allows the vocal melody to use the ever-so-important call-and-response technique. Now the fancy Dmaj9/F# is just a good old simple D chord.
| D | A | Em | F#m |
| D | A | Em | G |
| D | A | Em | A |
| D | A | Em | A | A |
Verse 3 and the chorus that follows have the same chords as you just played. After this chorus, we keep repeating the last line.
You could describe the A chord as an A13 now, but really, it’s a line that moves from b7 to 6 so, again, it’s best described using TAB.
The outro stays on the Dmaj9/F# riff before we finish on a Dmaj7.
Hammer-On and Pull-Off Exercises
Before you get your teeth into Babylon, it may be a good idea to fully explore hammering on and pulling off.
In the course, we turn to our trusted chromatic exercise and develop it into four new exercises. When you can play these, executing that hammer-on/pull-off lick in Babylon will be much easier.
If you want to have a go at playing Babylon without first practicing your hammering-on and pull-off technique, you can do so by watching the guitar lesson below and practicing the individual examples using the TAB loops in the playlist.
Babylon guitar lesson | Verse and chorus chords with TAB
The first example, which you’ll find as a TAB loop in the playlist above, is a simplified version of the verse riff, without bass notes.
Start by learning this and you’ll eventually be able to play the riff just like me and David do.
In example 2, we add those missing bass notes.
For example 3, more notes are added to flesh out the riff.
In example 4 we start varying the way we play this verse riff. More notes are added to make it sound bigger.
The riff also now starts with an open D string. Use this whenever you begin a new verse.
Example 5, now then, this is the most difficult example!
The final example for playing the verse is identical to example 5, although now we don’t include the top string and can therefore get rid of that awkward upstroke I talk about in the video lesson.
Before we can play the complete song we must learn the chorus as well.
Example 7 is the first chorus, the strumming is divided up.
Finally, in example 8 (second chorus), more strings are included as we want this chorus to be bigger than chorus 1.
There is also a variation made to the A chord at the end.
In the course, we next play the complete song. You get the complete TAB as well as a walkthrough of the entire arrangement.
Following this, we build a 2nd guitar part for Babylon so you, me, and the singer can play the song together.
For the complete experience, with 8 step-by-step guitar lessons, sign up here.
Babylon chords | Related pages
Babylon – 8 guitar lessons
Babylon by David Grey has a very tricky verse lick that uses Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs. To stand a chance of playing this, we must first practice some exercises.
Once you can do this, we learn the song step by step, including a unique 2nd guitar part so we can perform it together.
Intermediate Acoustic Songs
The intermediate songs can not be played using just basic open-position chords. We have to move up the fretboard and play CAGED barre chords as well.
We incorporate bass lines, licks, extend chords, and even play vocal melodies. Most importantly, we invent 2nd guitar parts and play these songs together.
Babylon – 5 similar tunes
- Englishman In New York chords
- Losing My Religion chords
- Riptide chords
- Starman chords
- Wish You Were Here chords
David Gray
David Gray is an English singer-songwriter. After many years of struggling with unsuccessful releases on different labels, he ended up recording the album White Ladder in his bedroom.
Since the release of White Ladder, David has toured the world.
David Gray on the web
