Like A Rolling Stone | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: C F/C C :|| x 4
Verse 1
| C Dm | Em F | G (G6) | G (G6) |
Once upon a time you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
| C Dm | Em F | G (G6) | G (G6) |
People call say ‘beware doll, you’re bound to fall’, you thought they were all kidding you.
| F | G | F | G |
You used to laugh about, everybody that was hanging out.
| F Em | Dm7 C | F Em | Dm7 C |
Now you don’t talk so loud, now you don’t seem so proud.
| Dm7 | F (F6) | G | G |
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
Chorus 1
||: C F | G | C F | G :||
How does it feel, how does it feel? To be without a home.
Like a complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.
Instrumental 1
| C F | G | C F | G | G (G6) |
Verse 2
Ahh, you’ve gone to the finest schools, alright, Miss Lonely but you know you only used to get juiced in it.
Nobody’s ever taught you how to live out on the street and now you’re gonna have to get used to it.
You say you never compromise, with the mystery tramp, but now you realize.
He’s not selling any alibis, as you stare into the vacuum of his eyes.
| Dm7 | F (F6) | G (G6) | G (G6) |
And say do you want to, make a deal?
Chorus 2
How does it feel? How does it feel? To be on your own.
With no direction home. A complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.
Instrumental 2
| C F | G (G6) | G (G6) |
Verse 3 (as verse 1)
Ah, you never turned around to see the frowns, on the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you.
You never understood that it ain’t no good, you shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you.
You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat, who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat.
Ain’t it hard when you discovered that, he really wasn’t where it’s at.
After he took from you everything he could steal.
Chorus 3
How does it feel? How does it feel? To be on your own.
With no direction home. Like a complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.
Instrumental 3
| C F | G | G |
Verse 4 (as verse 2)
Ahh princess on a steeple and all the pretty people, they’re all drinking, thinking that they’ve got it made.
Exchanging all precious gifts, but you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it, babe.
You used to be so amused at Napoleon in rags and the language that he used.
Go to him he calls you, you can’t refuse. When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.
You’re invisible now, you’ve got no secrets to conceal.
Chorus 4
How does it feel? Ah, how does it feel? To be on your own.
With no direction home. Like a complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.
Outro
||: C F | G | C F | G :|| to fade
Like A Rolling Stone Chords: Learn the progressions
Bob Dylan‘s masterpiece, Like A Rolling Stone, has chords that are completely diatonic to the key of C.
The intro is just the I chord, moving to the IV, still keeping the bass of chord I, like this:
||: C (I) F/C (IV/5) C :||
It’s possible to play this on the acoustic guitar, but I need to use TAB to explain it, here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Like A Rolling Stone – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Once the verse kicks in, we start climbing up the scale and if on the acoustic, using only open-position chords:
| C (I) Dm (II) | Em (III) F (IV) | G (V) (G6) | G (G6) |
The G6 doesn’t happen in all verses and is played like a guitar lick. Once we repeat that first idea we go to what almost feels like a bridge:
| F (IV) | G (V) | F | G |
Next, we start descending, in contrast to the initial idea, like this:
| F (IV) Em (III) | Dm7 (II) C (I) | F Em | Dm7 C |
The final line of the verse is this:
| Dm7 (II) | F (IV) (F6) | G (V) | G |
In some verses, this is varied slightly with the bass changing from D to F later, like this:
| Dm7 (II) | Dm7 F (IV) | G (V) | G |
Next, have the chorus (chorus 1 is shorter than the following choruses, use the chords and lyrics above for guidance).
Like A Rolling Stone’s chorus chords are a simple I – IV – V, like this:
||: C (I) F (IV) | G (V) :||
The instrumental section is the same as the chorus, just staying on that G for longer before we go back to the verse and do it all over again.
Once you’ve practised with the TAB, a chord chart is all you need.

Like A Rolling Stone Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Like A Rolling Stone Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Like A Rolling Stone iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Like A Rolling Stone started as a Waltz and ended up with a guitarist playing the organ!
When Bob brought Like A Rolling Stone to the studio, having not finished it or played it to any of the musicians, it was in 3/4 time, like a Waltz.
The band of hired session cats did their best but after several takes, they gave up and called it a day.
The following day, it was suggested that they try it again but without Dylan on the piano and on the guitar instead.
This made studio musician Paul Griffin switch to piano from organ and the experimentation continued.
All studio musicians for the session had been chosen by the producer, Tom Wilson, who had previously overseen Dylan’s last album, Bringing It All Back Home (also 1965).
One of Tom’s friends, a 21-year-old guitar player called Al Kooper was there but wasn’t supposed to play. After having been intimidated by the other guitarist on the session, Mike Bloomfield, Al cheekily jumped on the now abandoned Hammon Organ.
After listening back to a take, the producer tried to laugh it off but Dylan remarked, turn it up, and so was the arrangement with the characteristic Hammond part born.
Like A Rolling Stone was a big turning point in Bob’s career, just before it he had considered packing it all in.
In 2010, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Like A Rolling Stone #1 on their list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. I guess it was inevitable considering the magazine was named after it!
Like A Rolling Stone Chords | Related Pages
Like A Rolling Stone | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan using TAB and chord analysis.
| C Dm | Em F | G (G6) | G (G6) |
Once upon a time you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Bob Dylan tunes
Widely regarded as the most influential artist in popular culture, Bob Dylan has been covered and copied by almost everyone who ever attempted to write a song. His famous tunes are so many it’s impossible to pick just a few.
Some say Dylan invented modern songwriting.
Bob Dylan on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Like A Rolling Stone’s chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.