Heart Of Gold chords by Neil Young

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Heart Of Gold | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

||: Em7 | D5 Em (A B D E) :||
||: Em C | D5 G :|| x3
| Em7 | D5 Em (A B D E) |

Verse 1

||: Em C | D5 G :||
I want to live, I want to give.
I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold.
It’s these expressions, I never give.

Chorus 1

||: Em | G | C | (C B A) G :||
That keep me searching for a heart of gold and I’m getting old.
Keep me searching for a heart of gold and I’m getting old.

Instrumental 1

||: Em C | D5 G :|| x3
| Em7 | D5 Em (A B D E) |

Verse 2

||: Em C | D5 G :||
I’ve been to Hollywood, I’ve been to Redwood.
I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold.
I’ve been in my mind, it’s such a fine line.

Chorus 2

||: Em | G | C | (C B A) G :||
That keeps me searching for a heart of gold and I’m getting old.
Keeps me searching for a heart of gold and I’m getting old.

Instrumental 2

||: Em C | D5 G :|| x3

Outro

| Em | D5 Em |
Keep me searching for a heart of gold.
| Em | D5 Em |
You keep me searching and I’m growing old.
| Em | D5 Em |
Keep me searching for a heart of gold.
| Em | G | C | (C B A) G |
I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold. Ah-ha mm.

Heart Of Gold chords and progressions

The gorgeous Heart Of Gold by Neil Young has some great diatonic minimalism that most songwriters and guitar players could learn from.

The intro lays out the verse chord progression but mixes it up with a riff, here’s the riff:

||: Em7 | D5 Em (A B D E) :||

Using an open position Em, we simply add the b7, go to a D5, back to an Em, hammer-on the bass line, and loop it. So simple, so effective.

The verse chords, which we already heard during the intro and will later hear during the instrumental section move VI – IV – V – I.

||: Em C | D5 G :||

The chorus is also easy to learn and play, it uses the same chords we already heard, just changes the order to VI – I – IV – I, like this:

||: Em | G | C | (C B A) G :||

That bass line taking us down to the G chord is really clever, it’s so simple, yet feels like it belongs to Heart Of Gold’s chords, not like it was stolen, even though it’s been played a million times before.

This is the genius of a songwriter like Neil Young, he just focuses on making the song great, all the guitar parts are there to support the song. There is no fluff.

Heart Of Gold chords | Related pages

Five similar tunes

When you can play Heart Of Gold's chords, try these five tunes from the song book.

Neil Young

Neil Young started out with Buffalo Springfield, briefly joined Crosby, Stills & Nash, and collaborated with Pearl Jam but is best known for his solo career.

His best tunes include Harvest Moon, Heart Of Gold, Old Man, The Needle And The Damage Done, My My, Hey Hey, and Like A Hurricane.

Neil Young tunes.

Neil Young on the web