The Animals - The Black Plague: Guitar Chords

Learn to play 'The Black Plague' on your guitar with our detailed chord guide and lyrics. This page provides everything you need to perform this song on the guitar, including lyrics integrated with chords, chord diagrams, and a key transposer to match your vocal range.

Learn The Black Plague Guitar Chords and Lyrics by The Animals

This section will guide you through each part of the song, providing the guitar chords placed directly above the lyrics for easy playing. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced player, these elements will help you perform 'The Black Plague' smoothly on your guitar.

Em
The bell tolls
The black plague has struck
Diseased eyes roll upwards
As if knowing which direction
their souls will travel
(bring out your dead)
A woman in black cries
As the deathly procession passes by
And monks moan en masse

The yet clean peasant pounds upon
the castle door
For it is safer inside the walls
Their knocking pounds a dull tone
across the quiet, deserted courtyard
The bodies of unfortuates bloat
in the hot sun outside the castle walls
And ones ignorant of all facts
plunder the diseased corpses
for remaining riches
(bring out your dead)
And the bell tolls on

A man walks around the
castle walls on the outside
The light from his lamp dancing
shadows as he moves
He tends the sick
Gives comfort to all he can
for dying woman and crying man
But he feels it most for the children
(unclean)
Tears glisten on his cheek
Did man ever deserve this death?
And not all will die, just the poor
For the rich are inside the castle walls
And he knows he could be with them
And they laugh at this fool of a man
Through the stone fortress windows
And the bell tolls on
(unclean)
And many deaths and many days later
Many tears have been cry cried but in vain
For tears can never erase the pain of death
Only time has that talent
His hands are now blistered
but this man walks on
The only element of sanity
that the people look to him
for answers and he answers all
And the bell tolls on inside the castle wall
(bring out your dead)

The dead are now buried
and the plague is at its end
Life for the people flowers again
They breathe fresh air like they did once before
And there is not a sound
from beyond the castle walls
The bell has stopped
And only silence is heard
And the peasants outside wonder
what happened within
In their bones they feel something is wrong
The bell has been silent much too long
For many days not one soul has
stirred from the stone fortress
where the rich people live
No one came and no one went
Fear can do many strange things
And even though water ran low
Their mouths burnt and bellys caked dry
Not one person put a foot outside
No one had that much courage
For they feared the peasants
and their world outside
So they played it safe and didn't move
But one by one they perished and died

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Guitar Chord Diagrams

Em

Guitar chord Em

Here you can see detailed diagrams for each guitar chord used in the song. Utilize our key transposer to adjust the chords to a key that better fits your singing range. Simply select the desired key, and the chords throughout this page will update automatically, ensuring you can play and sing comfortably.

If you are also interested in learning how to play 'The Black Plague' on the ukulele, check out the chords on our sister site: Ukulele Chords for 'The Black Plague' by The Animals.

The Animals Song List