GCGEmDC
I was born a land-bound farm boy and in New England raised,
GEmD
The rippling of the wheat fields, well they were my ocean waves.
GCGEmDC
Each cry and call, each rise and fall, of the crows a-cross the corn
GDGCEmD
Were seagulls swooping a-cross the bow, of a ship I dreamed I?d sail a-round
G
Cape Horn.
GCGEmDC
My deck was the dusty farm yard, my mast was the telegraph pole
GEmD
And the windblow choir in the telephone wire was the call heard in my soul
GCGEmDC
And it seemed to have been singing since the day that I was born
GDGCEmD
I'm gonna take a trip on a sailing ship, all the way around the wild Cape
G
Horn
GCGEmDC
Well I found that ship in Hamburg, her name it was Peking
GEmD
Our skipper?s name was Captain J'rs, and I?d never met a man like him.
GCGEmDC
He pulled two men out from the sea, by the hair, in a raging storm.
GDGCEmD
And he kept that grip on a sailing ship, all the way around the wild Cape
G
Horn.
DAm
Well its four hours on and its four hours off and you sleep in your wet
C
clothes
GCEmD
The only dry thing on the ship is the cargo down below
GCGEmDC
Eleven thousand miles we sailed, nigh on one hundred dawns
GDGCEmDG
Thirty two sails on a heaving ship, pulling us around the wild cape horn
GCGEmDC
Well the cargo weighed five thousand tons, the ship three thousand more.
GEmD
An acre of sail was up aloft, some seventeen storeys tall.
GCGEmDC
And we had a pig, and a scruffy dog and a turkey fed on corn.
GDGCEmDG
And willing hands who catch the wind, hauling us around the wild Cape Horn.
GCGEmDC
For seventeen days we were becalmed and then Friday the thirteenth
GEmD
Sixty eight great ships were lost in the storm of the century.
GCGEmDC
But we were swept into the Atlantic, on a sun-lit sparkling morn,
GDGCEmD
The turkey got sick, so we ate him quick, on the way around the wild Cape
G
Horn.
DAmC
Well she had us sort of hypnotised, no time to catch our breath,
GCEmD
If you want to feel real alive, well you have to flirt with death.
GCGEmDC
Sail close to the harnessed wind, and treat all risks with scorn
GDGCEmDA farm boy and an un-yoked team , ploughed their way around the wild Cape
G
Horn.
GCGEmDC
Now on that voyage we lost two boys, they got thrown overboard.
GEmD
Silence from us down below, no one could put in words.
GCGEmDC
Two empty bunks to mark the space in our young lives to mourn,
GDGCEmDG
Voids between all life and death, on the way around the wild Cape Horn
GCGEmDC
And mountain waves, like avalanches crashed upon the decks,
GEmD
The screaming winds snapped ropes and spars, and tried to have us wrecked.
GCGEmDC
But she rose and fell through foam and swell, her sails were ripped and torn
GDGCEmDG
Eight thousand tons tossed like a cork, on the way around the wild Cape Horn.
DAmC
And she had us sort of hypnotised, no time to catch our breath,
GCEmD
If you want to feel real alive, well you have to flirt with death.
GCGEmDC
Sail close to the harnessed wind, and treat all risks with scorn
GDGCEmDA farm boy and an un-yoked team , ploughed their way around the wild Cape
G
Horn.
GDGCEmD
Well, a farm boy and un-yoked team , ploughed their way around the wild Cape
G
Horn.
This arrangement for the song is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the song. You may only use this for private study, scholarship, or research.