Alexander Hamilton

Chords

Standard

Bm   
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a 
F#   
Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a 
           G
Forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence
                   D
Impoverished, in squalor
               F#
Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?


     Bm        
The ten-dollar founding father without a father
       F# 
Got a lot farther by working a lot harder
            G
By being a lot smarter

By being a self-starter
      D                          F#
By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter


     Bm
And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted 
 F#
Away across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up
  G
Inside he was longing for something to be a part of
     D                         F#
The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow, or barter


        Bm 
Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned
     F#
Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain
       G
Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain
        D                                F#
And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain


          Bm
Well the word got around, they said, "This kid is insane, man"
F#
Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland
G
"Get your education, don't forget from whence you came
          D                      F#
and the world is gonna know your name. What's your name, man?"


Bm
Alexander Hamilton
            F#
My name is Alexander Hamilton
              G
And there's a million things I haven't done
              D              F#
But just you wait, just you wait...


            Bm
When he was ten his father split, full of it, debt-ridden
     F#                                                   G
Two years later, see Alex and his mother bed-ridden half-dead

Sittin' in their own sick, the scent thick


n/a
And Alex got better but his mother went quick


Bm    
Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide
F#
Left him with nothin' but ruined pride, something new inside
  G
A voice saying "Alex, you gotta fend for yourself"


               D                         F#
He started retreatin' and readin' every treatise on the shelf


      Bm
There would have been nothing left to do

For someone less astute, he woulda been
F#
Dead or destitute without a sense of restitution
         G
Started workin', clerkin' for his late mother's landlord
D                              F#
Tradin' sugar cane and rum and all the things he can't afford
Bm
Scammin' for every book he can get his hands on
F#
Plannin' for the future see him now as he stands on
    G
The bow of a ship headed for a new land
   D                F#
In New York you can be a new man

   Bm
In New York you can be a new man       
   F#
In New York you can be a new man      
   Bm
In New York you can be a new man


   F#
In New York


Just you wait!


Bm
Alexander Hamilton 
        G7
We are waiting in the wings for you 
           Em
You could never back down
                                F#
You never learned to take your time
     Bm
Oh, Alexander Hamilton 
      G7
When America sings for you
           Em
Will they know what you overcame?
           D                   Em
Will they know you rewrote the game?
     Bm         G    D      F#
The world will never be the same, oh


    Bm              
The ship is in the harbor now 
              
See if you can spot him       
 D        
Another immigrant 
    Em              
Comin' up from the bottom     
     Em           
His enemies destroyed his rep
        
America forgot him

   F#
We fought with him
   F#
Me? I died for him
   F#
Me? I trusted him
   Em       
Me? I loved him


   Bm              F#
And me? I'm the damn fool that shot him

         Em                            D
There's a million things I haven't done
             F#
But just you wait!



What's your name, man?


Bm
Alexander Hamilton!

Bm