Owl City - The Tornado: Guitar Chords

Learn to play "The Tornado" on your guitar with our chord guide. 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.

For easier playing, use our Simplify Chords feature to remove difficult chords like barre.

       F
It was just startin' to drizzle as
I walked out the door
    A#
But I've delivered papers in the rain like that
  Gm
before
  F
3:30 in the morning, I was happy as a lark
      A#                  C        F
As I grabbed my bike and rode into the dark
  F
I peddled through the neighbourhood,
the weather on my mind
    A#
The wind was pickin' up and howling louder
         Gm
all the time
      F
The sky turned like a cauldron and the
distant thunder roared
       A#             C            F
And I knew that I was in for quite a storm
   A#                               C
A little rain never hurt no one, so I kept
pressing on
        F                                 A#
And I tried to tell myself, "It's always darkest
             C
before the dawn"

Lightning struck an oak tree as I leapt off my bike
The sirens started wailing, but
there was no good place to hide
I knew without a doubt,
there was a twister touching down
So I crawled into a culvert to wait it out
The little bit of courage I had left was almost gone
But I tried to tell myself,
"It's always darkest before the dawn"

    A#                                Dm
And then the nightmare started it got deafeningly
loud
       F
every fiber in me screamed out
      F        Gm      C  Dm  Gm  Am
but I couldn't make a sound
     A#                     A/C#      Dm
the whirling of a vortex a violent carousel
   A#                B                C
it sounded like a freight train was dragging me
    C#
to hell

     Fm   F#  C/E  C
And this was my prayer
D#m        C#      A#m     Csus4 C
Save me from this terrible nightmare

That was when I saw my family
with my eyes shut real tight
Would they know how much I loved
them if this was how I died?
No, I vowed I'd not be murdered by
a monster in the sky that night
But if I went home to heaven,
at least that's where I'd belong

Yeah, I tried to tell myself,
"It's always darkest before the dawn"
So I kept hanging on (Ooh)
(Ooh) I kept hanging on
(Ooh)

The shadows slowly melted as I was hunkered down
'Til at last, the worst was over, the
storm was dying out
I crept out of that culvert and I went
weak in the knees
'Cause what I saw was a somber sight to see
There was nothing but destruction and
wreckage in that town
Cars were upside down and houses leveled
to the ground
A twisted trampoline was hangin' from
the power lines
I blinked a tear back as I felt lucky
 to be alive
And that was how I learned to live
When you can run but you can't hide
How to feel trapped in a tunnel
But come out the other side

'Cause with all the stormy weather in the world
You learn to take life one storm at a time
You don't have to be afraid

And now when there's bad weather
on the way, I stay calm
And I keep hanging on because
it's always darkest before the dawn

And I keep hanging on
I keep hanging on


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Guitar Chord Diagrams

A

Guitar chord A

A#

Guitar chord A#

A#m

Guitar chord A#m

Am

Guitar chord Am

B

Guitar chord B

C

Guitar chord C

C#

Guitar chord C#

Csus4

Guitar chord Csus4

D#m

Guitar chord D#m

Dm

Guitar chord Dm

E

Guitar chord E

F

Guitar chord F

F#

Guitar chord F#

Fm

Guitar chord Fm

Gm

Guitar chord Gm

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 Tornado" on the ukulele, check out the chords on our sister site: Ukulele Chords for "The Tornado" by Owl City.