Intro
E   A   E   B 
 
Verse
       E            A        E 
As the winding path takes me down 
       A                        E 
In the dust where the air grows still 
         A                            E      A 
Past the shattered sills to where the broken bricks 
    E                         B 
Lie tossed at the foot of the hill 
 
Verse
       E                 A       E 
To the gentle hum of the engines far 
        A                            E 
And the cry of the birds through the air 
         A                     E           A 
With the falling grace of dull light on my face 
       E               B 
To the city I vacantly stare 
 
Verse
E                        A          E 
Down at these hands that hang by my side 
       A                           E 
To the times they have twisted and bowed 
        A                                E          A 
For the graft they've done, the thousand tasks been run 
   E                  B 
To lie still and idle now 
 
Verse
     E                        A          E 
As a boy I would sit here and whistle my tune 
    A                       E 
And watch the world role on by 
         A                     E         A 
From the heat of the red-brick factories roar 
    E                      B 
The smoke spun soft in the sky 
 
Instrumental
E  B  E  A  E  B  E 
 
Verse
   E                A          E 
My boyhood dreaming waned as I grew 
        A                       E 
No more watching the race from afar 
     A                     E             A 
With steel-toe boots and a coarse boiler-suit 
  E                       B 
A lad amidst the furnaces scars 
 
Verse
  E                       A            E 
I learned my trade, how I listened and watched 
            A                E 
I worked as hard as hard can be 
         A                    E          A 
But with passing years I grew proud with hope 
     E                        B 
Of a future that was never to be 
 
Verse
E                      A             E 
Late in the day as the Autumn turned pale 
         A                        E 
A figure watched us work from the door 
     A               E           A 
Into burning air his words spoke clear 
     E                     B 
In a haze our jobs were no more 
 
Verse
   E                       A              E 
I awoke each morning, days stretched into nights 
      A                           E 
And I lurched through a hollow routine 
       A                     E              A 
In the queues each week with companions I'd stand 
        E                          B 
But our fortunes had turned on our dreams 
 
Verse
        E                      A         E 
For two sons and a daughter we had to provide 
   A                         E 
My wife worked long into the nights 
     A                       E              A 
To escape the stale air of a room with four walls 
          E                         B 
I skimmed stones at the quarry till light 
 
Verse
       E                          A             E 
In the years that followed things picked up and shone 
      A                     E 
And I hustled a job where I could 
   A                            E           A 
Re-sk*lled and re-tooled with a home of our own 
     E                              B 
In a strange shifting world we were stood 
 
Verse
   E                A             E 
As time wore on our children grew tall 
      A                        E 
And I taught them all that I'd learned 
       A                   E             A 
In and out of trouble, the same as their dad 
        E                              B 
Dodging cops, running streets at Pikes turn 
 
Verse
   E                         A              E 
As some strangers say, we've carved our own way 
     A                          E 
In a world that still lists and turns 
          A                            E             A 
But once again there's no work for the young in this town 
        E                             B 
And the queues form in air that still burns 
 
Verse
         E                       A             E 
With the dusk tales said, as the evening light ebbs 
       A                  E 
My son walks off into the night 
          A                          E              A 
With only dull flapping wings of the last bird that sings 
         E                         B 
He skims stones at the quarry till light