Key: Bm
Introduction:
Bm
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a
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Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a
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Forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence
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Impoverished, in squalor
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Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
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The ten-dollar founding father without a father
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Got a lot farther by working a lot harder
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By being a lot smarter
By being a self-starter
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By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter
Bm
And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted
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Away across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up
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Inside he was longing for something to be a part of
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The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow, or barter
Bm
Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned
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Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain
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Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain
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And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain
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Well the word got around, they said, "This kid is insane, man"
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Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland
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"Get your education, don't forget from whence you came
D Bbº
and the world is gonna know your name." What's your name, man?
Bm
Alexander Hamilton
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My name is Alexander Hamilton
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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
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Two years later, see Alex and his mother bed-ridden half-dead
Sittin' in their own sick, the scent thick
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Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide
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Left him with nothin' but ruined pride, something new inside
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A voice saying
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He started retreatin' and readin' every treatise on the shelf
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There would have been nothing left to do
For someone less astute, he woulda been
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Dead or destitute without a sense of restitution
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Started workin', clerkin' for his late mother's landlord
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Tradin' sugarcane and rum and all the things he can't afford
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Scannin' for every book he can get his hands on
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Plannin' for the future see him now as he stands on
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The bow of a ship headed for a new land
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In New York you can be a new man
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In New York you can // (HAMILTON)
Be a new man // Just you wait
G7
In New York you can // (HAMILTON)
Be a new man // Just you wait
Em9
In New York you can
Be a new man
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In New York--
Bm
Alexander Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
G7
We are waiting in the wings for you (waiting in the wings for you)
Em
You could never back down
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You never learned to take your time
Bm
Oh, Alexander Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
G7
When America sings for you
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Will they know what you overcame?
D Em
Will they know you rewrote the game?
Bm/F# Em/G D/A F#7/A#
The world will never be the same, oh
Bm
The ship is in the harbor now // (COMPANY)
Bm/C#
See if you can spot him // Just you wait
Bm/D
Another immigrant
Em
Comin' up from the bottom // Just you wait
Em/G
His enemies destroyed his rep
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America forgot him
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We fought with him
F#4 F#
Me? I died for him
Bm9/F# F#
Me? I trusted him
Em6/F# F#
Me? I loved him
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And me? I'm the damn fool that shot him
Em/G D
There's a million things I haven't done
Em6/F#
But just you wait!
F#7
What's your name, man?
Bm
Alexander Hamilton!
Bm