Guitar Chords for The Libertines' Man Who Can't Be Moved
The chords to this song sit around E minor, G, C, and D. Standard tuning. Strumming pattern is pretty loose, but if you want something that actually works, try down-down-up-up-down-up. That basic four-chord loop covers most of the verses and the chorus. The song doesn't change progression much, which is why it sounds so repetitive in a good way. Chordtela's version of this song lists the same four chords but sometimes adds optional barre shapes that aren't necessary. I've seen a lot of people try to play it as a barre chord in E minor and struggle through the whole thing. You don't need to do that. Open strings work fine and actually sound better for this song since the band uses open voicings mostly. The Chordtela simplified version strips away some of the unnecessary fretting patterns and just gives you the core shape. Here's the progression: Em G C D. Repeat. Verse, chorus, bridge, pretty much everything runs on this. The only real variation comes in the outro where Pete Doherty occasionally bends into a G major shape, but that's more about feel than anything you need to nail precisely.
I ran into an issue once trying to follow a tab that showed the chord progression as Em-G-C-D with a specific fingerpicking pattern. The problem was the tempo. This song sits around 138 BPM and the picking pattern in that tab assumed a slower strumming approach. My workaround was just to treat it as straight downstrokes on the beat and ignore the fingerstyle notation entirely. Much cleaner that way. One thing beginners miss: the D chord at the end of the progression creates a nice pull back to Em that makes the loop feel unresolved, which is exactly what the song wants. If you're strumming too cleanly or quantizing your timing, it loses that dragging, relaxed quality. Play it slightly behind the beat and it sounds more like the original. Another counter-intuitive detail: the C chord should be played as a standard open C (no barre), not a C major bar at the third fret. The open C has a different timbre that fits the jangly guitar tone Doherty uses. A barre C sounds too polished and heavy for this track.
The main limitation of relying on simplified chord charts like the Chordtela simplified version is that they won't capture the vocal melody's rhythmic phrasing or the slight chord variations that happen in live performances. The Libertines recorded different takes with different voicings, and some guitarists add double-stops or partial chords that simplified charts omit. If you want the full sound, you'll need to listen to the actual recording and pick up those details by ear. For someone who just wants to play along or learn the basic structure, the four-chord loop is sufficient. Most people learning this song just need to get comfortable transitioning between Em and G since that's the most common stumbling block. The rest is muscle memory at that point.
Get the Full Details
