E                        E7 
It was just after dark when the truck started down 
    A                    Am              E 
The hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania. 
         D      D/C#     Bm        E 
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
         D      D/C#     Bm        E 
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
 
  
 
         E 
He was a young driver, 
A  
just out on his second job. 
E 
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits 
    A                Am 
For everyone in that coal-scarred city, 
      E 
Where children play without despair 
   A*                                       E 
In backyard slag piles, and folks manage to eat each day 
      D      D/C#     Bm        E 
About thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
                D      D/C#     Bm 
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
 
  
 
   E                     E7 
He passed a sign that he should have seen, 
         A                 Am              E 
saying, "Shift to low gear or fifty dollar fine, my friend." 
       A                          Am 
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman 
        E 
Who was waiting at the journey's end. 
   A                Am 
He started down the two-mile drop, 
    E                                           B 
The curving road that wound from the top of the hill. 
       E 
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot. 
 
Just a few more miles to go, 
     A                Am                E 
Then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away. 
                 D      D/C#     Bm        E 
And the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
                  D      D/C#     Bm    
Yes, the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
 
  
 
       E                    E7              A         Am       E 
He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him. 
       E                   E7                        A 
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the night's 
Am            E 
Delights went through him. 
    E                        E   
His foot nursed the brakes to slow him down, 
        Bm               Bm   
But the pedal floored easy without a sound. 
          E 
He said, "Christ!" 
                                       Am 
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now. 
               E 
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide, 
 
Riding on his fear-hunched back 
     A* 
With every one of those yellow-green, 
                 D      D/C#     Bm        E 
I'm telling you, thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
                D      D/C#     Bm       
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
 
  
 
   E               E7                  A   Am       E 
He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade. 
       E                   E7             A      Am       E 
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour. 
              A              Bm 
And he said, "God, make it a dream!" 
      G        D         A 
As he rode his last ride down. 
              A              Bm 
And he said, "God, make it a dream!" 
      G        D         A 
As he rode his last ride down. 
           Am 
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars, 
E 
Clipped off thirteen telephone poles, 
Am 
Hit two houses, bruised eight trees, 
    E 
And Blue-Crossed seven people. 
       Bm 
It was then he lost his head, 
       Am                              E 
Not to mention an arm or two before he stopped. 
  
And he smeared for four hundred yards 
 
Along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania. 
          D      D/C#     Bm        E 
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
 
  
                                           E 
You see the man who told me about it on the bus, 
      A                       Am        E 
As it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania. 
   E 
He shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head, 
       A     
And he said (and this is exactly what he said), 
 
"Boy, that sure must've been something. 
 
Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas. 
                D      D/F#     Bm        N.C. 
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.