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The Droving Woman Live by Paul Kelly
The Droving Woman Live
Tempo: 4|4
Capo 6
Chords: EADGBe
C: 332010
Am: X02210
G: 320003
F: 133211
Intro:
|C Am G|C Am G|C Am G|C G F|
Verse 1:
C Am G
Well, she buried him down on the edge of the town,
C Am G
Where the brigalow suckers, on the cemetery creep.
C Am G
She stood with them children in a heavy brown gown,
C G F
What you want you just can't always keep.
Verse 2:
C Am G
"Well I'm sorry", I said, "I knew him so well",
C G
Though your body is young, well you never can tell.
Em C Am G
When the hand of fate brings it's fateful death knell",
C G F
She just turned with the slightest of smiles.
Verse 3:
C Am G
She said "From the start well we knewed it so hard,
C Am G
We were always handed the severest of cards.
C Am G
A honeymoon spent droving Jamieson's stock,
C G F
Through the wildest winter you've seen.
Verse 4:
C Am G
And my Romantic notions of horses and land,
C Am G
They were soon dis-pelled as a fantasised dream.
C Am G
Watching cattle at night in the mid-winter cold,
C G F
Turns a person, both wiry and old.
Verse 5:
C Am G
Well the flame of the breakfast fire'd be dead,
C Am G
As the sun rose up, well you move up ahead.
C Am G
I'd be breaking the camp up and rolling the beds,
C G F
As you fanned the stock wider for feed.
Verse 6:
C Am G
When the weather turned sour with the onset of rain,
C Am G
An' the truck'd bogged down to the axle main.
C Am G
We'd move up ahead then with pack saddles and chains,
C G F
And I'd wait in the mud by the road.
Verse 7:
C Am G
With the blankets and the canvas all hung out to dry,
C Am G
There's nothing for heating 'cause you couldn't light a fire.
C Am G
And no stock permit for the forthcoming shire.
C G F
(No lyric line)
Verse 8:
C Am G
For the cattle don't camp where they're sloshing in rain,
C Am G
They keep walking forward all night like a dog on a chain.
C Am G
And he'd be red eyed and weary with a pack horse turned lame,
C G F
And I'd wait miles behind in the mud.
Instrumental Solo 1: (Violin over)
|C Am G |C Am G|C Am G|C G F|
Verse 9:
C Am G
It was down through Charleville up to Julia Creek,
C Am G
Living on syrup and damper and salted corn meat.
C Am G
We had nothing but the 'roos and the mailman to meet,
C G F
We'd move up and down with the rains.
Verse 10:
C Am G
But them inland skies have the starriest of nights,
C Am G
With the dance of the fire throwing flickering lights.
C Am G
The beauty of it's sunsets were a constant delight,
C G F
I felt that nature had let me intrude.
Verse 11:
C Am G
The enormous vastness of them inland plains,
C Am G
Brings you a lonely contentment to which you can't put a name.
C Am G
It's a satisfied glow city folks seldom attain,
C G F
They spend their life on a right rigid rail.
Verse 12:
C Am G
The kids got their schooling from the government mail,
C Am G
We posted their work off at each cattle sale.
C Am G
They considered their learning, a self imposed jail,
C G F
They'd rather help their father and fail.
Instrumental Solo 2: (Violin over)
|C Am G|C Am G|C Am G|C G F|
Verse 13:
C Am G
Early last month at the end of the dry,
C Am G
He was given a horse no-body could ride.
C Am G
Alert were his ears with a fire in his stride,
C G F
He was young and his spirit was wild.
Verse 14:
C Am G
To catch him each morning was an hour long battle,
C Am G
We had to collar rope his near side to throw on the saddle.
C Am G
Or he'd bite and he'd strike, he made my nerves rattle,
C G F
Pande-monium reigned with each ride.
Verse 15:
C Am G
It was a hot summers' mornin' at the government bore,
C Am G
There was a stillness around like I've never felt before.
C Am G
How could he know it was fate at his door,
C G F
That was stealthily watchin' his moves.
Verse 16:
C Am G
He mounted up quick taking slack from the reins,
C Am G
Grabbed a full hand of hair from the horse's long mane.
C Am G
He'd just hit the saddle when the horse went insane,
C G F
Churning dust in a frenzy of fear.
Verse 17:
C Am G
The girth on the saddle let go at the ring,
C Am G
The surcingle slipped it was impossible to cling.
C Am G
The horse felt it go made a desperate fling,
C G F
He was thrown to the length of the reins.
Verse 18:
C Am G
And I heard his spine snap like a 'roo shooters' shot,
C Am G
He'd busted his back on the concreted trough.
C Am G
Sickness and fear were the feelings I got,
C G F
For the doctor was a six hour drive.
Verse 19:
C Am G
And I looked at his face and his colour turned white,
C Am G
He turned slowly and said "I can't make it till night.
C Am G
My body is broken, I'm bleedin' inside",
C G F
And the life slowly drained from his eyes.
Instrumental Solo 3: (Violin over)
|C Am G |C Am G|C Am G|C G F|
|C Am G |C Am G|C Am G|C G F|
Verse 20:
C Am G
'Guess I'll sell up the plant now and move back to town,
C Am G
Before the winter returns with a chill on the ground.
C Am G
'Cause what I have lost can seldom be found,
C G F
I was blessed with the gentlest of men.
Verse 21:
C Am G
Eventually the children will move to the east,
C Am G
But I couldn't stand the bustle of even a quiet city street.
C Am G
I'll stay in the scrub here where my heart really beats,
C G F
For some dogs are too old to change.
[End]
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