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Home ❯ Songs ❯ Sublime ❯

Rivers of Babylon

by Sublime • Lesson #10 • Nov 17, 2013

About this lesson

Here’s a guitar lesson teaching you how to play Rivers of Babylon, specifically the Sublime acoustic cover from 1988. This is one of the very first songs I ever learned back on my acoustic guitar back in 1999 – such a fun one to learn. I’ll teach you the chord shapes and also show tabs for the distinctive intro riff. Best of luck with it!

Listen to Sublime’s Recording

I’m not sure if their guitars are properly in tune, but either way you can use this to reference their approach to this classic song.

Notes and tabs

Chords Used

Here are the chords used to play this song. Nice and straightforward.

e-|----3----0----2----
B-|----0----1----3----
G-|----0----0----2----
D-|----0----2----0----
A-|----2----3---------
E-|----3--------------
       G    C    D

Intro & Verse Riff

Here is how you play the main riff heard in the intro. You can also play this during the verse sections of the song. Don’t forget to add strumming for each chord – this mainly focuses on the notes you play that lead to each chord. As always, listen along to the song for reference.

e-|---------------------3---|---------------------3---|-
B-|---------------------0---|---------------------0---|-
G-|---------------------0---|---------------------0---|-
D-|---------------------0---|---------------------0---|-
A-|---------2--2--3-----2---|---------2--2--3-----2---|-
E-|---3--3-----------3--3---|---3--3-----------3--3---|-
                        G                         G

 -|---------------------2---|---------------------3---||
 -|---------------------3---|---------------------0---||
 -|---------------------2---|---------------------0---||
 -|---------------------0---|---0--0--2--0--------0---||
 -|---2--2--3--3--2--0------|---------------2--0--2---||
 -|-------------------------|---------------------3---||
                        D                         G

Chord progressions

INTRO
Played with the riff shown above
| G . . . | G . . . | G . . . | G . . . |
| D . . . | D . . . | G . . . | G . . . |

VERSE
"By the rivers of Babylon..."
| G . . . | G . . . | G . . . | G . . . |
| D . . . | D . . . | G . . . | G . . . |

CHORUS
"Oh for the wicked, carry us away..."
| G . . . | G . . . | C . . . | G . . . |
| D . . . | D . . . | D . . . | G . . . |

REFRAIN
"So let the words of our mouth..."
| G . . . | D . . . | G . . . | D . . . |
| D . . . | D . . . | D . . . | G . . . |

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