Tab Realm

Back At The Isa by John Williamson


              Back At The Isa 


Capo:no capo

[Verse 1]
C                    F
Big galvanised roofs and monster pipes black 
 G7                           C
Pink and white clouds from a chimney stack 
 C                         F
Red dust and hawks in the wind out back 
  G7               C
And here I am at the Isa 
 
 
[Link]
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[Verse 2]
C                   F
What do you do in a town like the Isa 
 G7               C
Retrenched at 50 become an old miser 
 C                              F
Drink yourself blind so you're none the wiser 
       G7                          C
Sit at home with the race form and whinge 
   C                    F
Just over the hill in his own backyard 
   G7                  C
The landscape becomes a picture postcard 
         C                        F
Where the colours are soft but the life is hard 
       G7                   C
On the stations here at the Isa 
 
 
[Link]
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[Verse 3]
 C                       F
Tonight's the night of the rodeo ball 
   G                        C
Before riders and bull and horses stand tall 
  C                        F
While out in the park some black people sprawl 
   G                   C
And share their money on flagons 
  C                     F
There's so much more to be understood 
   G                     C
Before coming out here like Robin Hood 
  C                           F
The do-gooders do more harm than good 
  G                    C
Without really knowing the Isa
 
 
[Link]
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[Verse 4]
  C                                 F
Through the Leichhardt East Where fools gold flashes
  G                     C
Fossick around for Maltese Crosses 
   C                    F
Flog them off to the tourist buses 
  G                 C
See ghost gums under the moon 
    C                   F
Some really battle some make do 
  G                         C
The luckier ones make a quid and pull through 
C                            F
Some perch at the bar like a caged cockatoo 
  G                     C
But that's nothing new at the Isa 
 
 
[Link]
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[Verse 5]
  C                     F
And it takes a special kind of girl 
  G                       C
To stay out here in this rugged world 
   C                        F
Keep your dignity when the oathes are hurled 
  G                C
I pay my respects to you 
  C                        F
And I'll raise my glass to an outback town 
  G                             C
To that weathered spirit that won't back down 
  C                        F
It takes the courage of a rodeo clown 
  G                  C
To stick it out at the Isa 
 
 
[Link]
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[Verse 6]
 C                    F
Big galvanised roofs and monster pipes black 
 G7                           C
Pink and white clouds from a chimney stack 
 C                         F
Red dust and hawks in the wind out back 
  G7               C
And here I am at the Isa 
 
 
[Outro]
      C                           F
Never thought I'd return to this lonely track 
     G7                    C
And here I am back at the Isa 
 
C   F   G7  C   C   F   G7  C





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