King Of The Road | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| Bb Bb/D | Eb | F | F |
Verse 1
| Bb | Eb | F | Bb |
Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, 50 cents.
| Bb | Eb | F7 N.C | N.C |
No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain’t got no cigarettes.
| Bb | Eb | F | Bb |
Ah, but, two hours of pushin’ broom, buys an eight by twelve four-bit room.
| Bb | Eb | F7 N.C | N.C |
I’m a man of means by no means, King of the road.
Verse 2
| Bb | Eb | F | Bb |
Third boxcar, midnight train. Destination Bangor, Maine.
| Bb | Eb | F7 N.C | N.C |
Old, worn-out suit and shoes, I don’t pay no union dues.
| Bb | Eb | F | Bb |
I smoke old stogies I have found, short, but not too big around.
| Bb | Eb | F7 N.C | N.C |
I’m a man of means by no means, King of the road.
Verse 3 (key change)
| B | E | F | Bb |
I know every engineer on every train.
| B | E | F#7 N.C | N.C |
All of their children, and all of their names.
| B | E | F# | B |
And every handout in every town.
| B | E | F#7 N.C | N.C |
And every lock that ain’t locked, when no one’s around.
Verse 4
| B | E | F# | B |
I sing, Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, 50 cents.
| B | E | F#7 N.C | N.C |
No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain’t got no cigarettes.
| B | E | F# | B |
Ah, but, two hours of pushin’ broom, buys an eight by twelve four-bit room.
| B | E | F#7 N.C | N.C |
I’m a man of means by no means, King of the road.
Verse 5
| B | E | F# | B |
Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, 50 cents.
| B | E | F#7 N.C | N.C |
No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain’t got no cigarettes.
| B | E | F# | B |
Ah, but, two hours of pushin’ broom, buys an eight by twelve four-bit room.
| B | E | F#7 N.C | N.C |
I’m a man of means by no means, King of the road.
A Country song without cowboy chords
A classic country tune in an odd key we find in King Of The Road by singer-songwriter Roger Miller.
As you can see in the video above, there are no open-position cowboy chords here, instead, we play barre chords, initially from the key of Bb.
As far as the chord progression goes, it’s the good old I – IV – V, only varied with a stop every other time.
After two verses, we simply modulate a semitone up from Bb to B.
This is songwriting in its simplest form, we essentially have one idea over 8 bars, and then just repeat it, like this:
| Bb (I) | Eb (IV) | F (V) | Bb (I) |
| Bb (I) | Eb (IV) | F7 (V) N.C | N.C |
When it comes to the melody and lyrics of King of The Road, that idea stretches over 16 bars.
This slight variation of one idea repeating over 8 bars (chords), and the other idea repeating over 16 bars (lyrics/melody) is genius.
All you need to complete King Of The Road’s chords is to modulate up a semi-tone after a couple of verses.
Most songwriters that I’ve come across suffer from trying to cram too many ideas into one song, next time that happens, I’m playing them King Of The Road!
King Of The Road chords | Related pages
Intermediate Acoustic
Most intermediate acoustic tunes can’t 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, add licks, extend chords, and play vocal melodies. Most importantly, we invent second guitar parts and play these songs together.
Five similar tunes
- Blue Suede Shoes chords
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love chords
- Creepin’ In chords
- Me and Bobby McGee chords
- On the Road Again chords
Roger Miller
Roger Miller started out as a songwriter in the 50s and released his own tunes in the 60s. In the 70s, he went back to being a songwriter again, now for Disney.
His best-known tunes include Billy Bayou, Oo-De-Lally, Dang Me, England Swings, and his signature song King Of The Road.
Roger Miller on the web
Country & Folk
In the primarily acoustic genres of Country & Folk, you must acquire what matters the most: A repertoire. Nothing else will give you the gig.
Learn tunes by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, America, Don McLean, and many more.
