Ventura Highway | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: G | G | Dmaj7/F# | Dmaj7/F# :||
Verse 1
||: G | G | Dmaj7/F# | Dmaj7/F# :||
Chewing on a piece of grass walking down the road.
Tell me, how long you gonna stay here, Joe?
Some people say this town don’t look good in snow.
You don’t care, I know.
Bridge 1
| G6 | G6 | Dmaj9/F# | Dmaj9/F# |
Ventura Highway, in the sunshine.
| G6 | G6 | Dmaj9/F# | Dmaj9/F# |
Where the days are longer the nights are stronger than moonshine.
| G6 | G6 | Dmaj9/F# | Dmaj9/F# | F#m11 | F#m11 |
You’re gonna go, I know, ow-ow-ow…
Chorus 1
||: Em | F#m11 :||
‘Cause the free wind is blowing through your hair.
And the days surround your daylight there.
Seasons crying no despair.
| Em | F#m11 | F#m11 | G | G |
Alligator lizards in the air, in the air.
Chorus tag 1
| Dmaj7/F# | Dmaj7/F# | G | G | Dmaj7/F# | Dmaj7/F# |
Du du du…
Verse 2
||: G | G | Dmaj7/F# | Dmaj7/F# :||
Wishin’ on a falling star, watchin’ for the early train.
Sorry boy, but I’ve been hit by purple rain.
Aw, come on Joe, you can always change your name.
Thanks alot son, just the same.
Bridge 2
| G6 | G6 | Dmaj9/F# | Dmaj9/F# |
Ventura Highway, in the sunshine.
| G6 | G6 | Dmaj9/F# | Dmaj9/F# |
Where the days are longer the nights are stronger than moonshine.
| G6 | G6 | Dmaj9/F# | Dmaj9/F# | F#m11 | F#m11 |
You’re gonna go, I know, ow-ow-ow…
Chorus 2
||: Em | F#m11 :||
‘Cause the free wind is blowin’ through your hair.
And the days surround your daylight there.
Seasons crying no despair.
| Em | F#m11 | F#m11 | G | G |
Alligator lizards in the air, in the air.
Chorus tag 2
||: Dmaj7/F# | Dmaj7/F# | G | G :||
Du du du…
Ventura Highway’s chords and progressions
Before you start playing Ventura Highway, you need to tune the guitar slightly sharp or it’ll sound weird playing along with the original recording.
Use my free online guitar tuner, and set it to 446 Hz.
Just like with America’s other huge tune, A Horse With No Name, we are dealing with several layered guitars here. So much so it is almost impossible to play this on one acoustic.
I say almost as you will first have to learn the original licks and strumming patterns, then develop these to work on just one guitar.
Looking at the chords of the verse and pointing out that it’s IV – I/3, or G – Dmaj7/F#, the bridge being the same but a G6 doesn’t tell you enough about Ventura Highway’s chords in order to play them.
Instead, this is best done with accurate TAB, members get this as well as a chord progression analysis. Here’s a link to the complete lesson: Ventura Highway chord analysis and TAB.
Become a member today and get unlimited access to all step-by-step guitar courses, TAB for the songbook, the Self-Eliminating Practice Routine, and the eBook Spytunes Method.
America’s signature song – Ventura Highway!
Ventura Highway is America‘s signature song, they’ve even named their website after it, I guess America.com was taken!
Released in 1972, it wasn’t perhaps a worldwide hit but instead a tune that over the years has grown in popularity, I still hear it on the radio, half a century later.
Not just popular with the general public, but other artists have been influenced by it, Prince admitted to naming Purple Rain after a lyric from verse 2 and once you made the connection with David Gray‘s Babylon it’s hard to not hear it!
Having spent a day or two transcribing it, I’m finding it hard to get it out of my head, those guitar lines are so catchy!
Ventura Highway chords | Related pages
Advanced Acoustic
The advanced acoustic tunes use big chord extensions and sometimes, unique and complex chords that incorporate open strings.
Study these in-depth and you will gain a complete understanding of the guitar fretboard, including how to build any scale, arpeggio, or chord.
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
America
Named America so people wouldn’t think they put on a fake accent, the band formed in London during the late 60s.
Their best tunes include A Horse With No Name, Ventura Highway, and Sister Golden Hair.
America 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.
Pop & Rock
Whenever a tune doesn’t fit into a specific genre, it tends to end up here, in the Pop & Rock section.
Learn tunes from Tom Petty, Eagles, Toto, Oasis, Elvis, Clapton, John Mayer, Kings Of Leon, R.E.M., Radiohead, Bruno Mars, and more.
