Capo
3
Difficulty
Beginner
Rate for accuracy
🎸
Key: Bb
Intro:
G
Verse 1:
G C G
The first thing you learn is grieving and loss
C G
'Cause you can't return to the safe place you lost
Am7 G
From your mother's womb into the chaos of the cold hospital room
C G C G
When you're a child, they say, "Follow the rules,"
C G
And they send you to church and they drop you at school
Am7 G
And your little heart breaks as you're watching them both drive away
Chorus:
C G/B Am7
And I cried on the side of the curb
C G/B Am7
Yeah, the panic set in, and it hurt
C Em Am7
Oh, but that's just the way that it works
G
The way of the world
Verse 2:
C G C G
As you're growing up, you get faced with the truth
C G
That your parents are people and messed up like you
Am7 G
And the child inside them is broken and still hurten too
G G C G
You get to the end when your time's almost done
C G
With your skin paper-thin and your bones giving up
Am7 G
From the very beginning, you've been going against the wind
Out-Chorus:
C G/B Am7
And your body goes back to the earth
C G/B Am7
And your soul to the whole universe
C Em7 Am7
God, I hope that's the way that it works
G
The way of the world
C G/B Am7
From the very first moment it hurts
C G/B Am7
'Til the day that you're laid in the dirt
C Em Am7
Yeah, but that's just the way that it works
G
The way of the world
C G/B Am7
The way of the world, ooh
C G/B Am7
'Til the day that you're laid in the dirt
C Em Am7
Yeah, but that's just the way that it works
G
The way of the world (Mm-mm, mm-mm)
Video/Audio
Song History
Published: November 27, 2025
Last Updated: February 3, 2026