If I Were a Carpenter

Words & Music by Tim Hardin*
Recorded by Bobby Darin*, 1966 (#8)


   D         C       C/B  Am    Am7/G      D
If I were a carpenter        and you were a lady

                     C    C/B  Am       Am7/G     D
Would you marry me anyway,     would you have my baby?


 D           C            C/B  Am      Am7/G       D
If a tinker were my trade,        would you still love me?

D              C     C/B Am  Am7/G        D
Carrying the pots I made,    following behind me


Bridge:

C                     D
Save my love through loneliness,

C                  D
Save my love for sorrow;

      D            C   C/B  - Am
I've given you my onliness--

Am/G            D      
Give me your tomorrows.


D                C          C/B Am     Am7/G         D
If I worked my hands in wood,      would you still love me

                  C      C/B   Am        Am7/G    D
Answer me, babe, yes, I would,   I would put you above me


   D           C  C/B  Am       Am7/G         D
If I were a miller          at a mill wheel grinding

D                    C     C/B  Am       Am7/G       D
Would you miss your colored box,    your soft shoes shining?


Repeat Bridge:


Repeat First Verse:

Few people mention it, but both of the principal individuals involved with this song died extremely young. Darin Died at age 37 of heart failure in 1973, and Hardin died in 1980 at the age of 39.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.