Lawsons Ghost

Capo on the fret 2 

intro 

D 



     D                                 G 
As i sat beside the campfire late last evening 
   A7                              D 
My old blue dog he lay close by of course 
                                           G 
All was quiet except for bells and hobbles jingling 
       A7                         D 
And my horses fed along the water course. 

    G                                 D 
You know the way a campfire makes you drowsy 
       E                           A7 
As you sit alone and gaze into its glow 
  D                                 G 
I must have drifted off and started dreaming 
    A7                               D 
And how i wish that dream was really so. 


D                                D7 
Up to my fireside walked a weary swagman 
   G                                      E 
He said goodnight and dropped his bluey down 
    A7 
And from his water bag he filled his billy 
    G                   A7                    D 
And while it boiled, he   squatted on the ground. 


   D                                   D7 
He filled his pipe and lit it from the fire 
    G                                 E 
And in the glow his face i plainly saw 
  A7 
A face with lines of care and eyes of sadness 
      G                  A7                 D 
And i wondered where i'd seen that face before. 



   D                                D7 
He said his name was lawson, henry lawson 
     G                                    E 
Then reached inside his tucker bag for tea 
    A7 
And threw a handle full in his battered billy 
    G                   A7                    D 
And filled two mugs and    handed one for me 



   D                                        D7 
He told that he'd had a spell from tramping 
     G                               E 
Been resting a place called paradise 
  A7 
I said i’d never been there though i'd travelled 
    G           A7                   D 
And seldom ever trod the same tracks twice. 



   D                                              D7 
He said he noticed that things had little altered 
     G                                  E 
From what they were a hundred years ago 
   A7 
He noticed precious water from the darling 
      G             A7              D 
Still wasted in the ocean far below. 



   D                                D7 
He puffed his pipe a while and mumbled something 
G                                        E 
That sounded like the storm that is to come 
   A7 
He spoke about the drought and desolation 
  G                A7               D 
Amazed that men of office still are dumb 


Interlude 

D     G 
A7    D   B7 



    E                                    E7 
The curlews screeching overhead awoke me 
  A                                 F# 
I stirred the fire and put billy on 
B7 
  i just remembered then the old sundowner 
    A                 B7                    E 
But when i looked his swag, and he were gone 



       E                                 E7 
Was it really ghost that came to see me? 
A                                  F# 
Or just a dream in my subconscious mind 
   B7 
Oh i'll never know the answer to that question 
  A                  B7                 E 
Until i’ve left this living world behind 



       E                                      E7 
Then i thought about this lawson, henry lawson 
    A                                 F# 
And all at once it hit me with a rush 
B7 
He was the man who made his name immortal 
     A                B7                   E 
And immortalised this country in his verse 



   E                                             E7 
He was the poet of the people, the common people 
       A                                    F# 
And he fought their cause with magic of his pen 
    B7 
And when sad alone and destitute he left us 
   A                 B7             E 
He bore no ill to us, his fellow men 



    E                                      E7 
And now an afterlife to laud his greatness 
  A                                       F# 
A lasting monument that’s carved in stone 
      B7 
Looks down upon some street where once he wondered 
A               B7                 E 
Hungry, sad and worst of all alone 



    E                                            E7 
And from each 10-dollar bill that now is printed 
      A                                  F# 
There looks at us his only friendly dial 
    B7 
And he leans upon some haloed bar up yonder 
      A              B7     N.C.            E 
I can almost see him smile, his quiet smile.