Am
Am~E
Come gather ’round friends
G
Am
And I’ll tell you a tale
Am
G
Am
Of when the red iron ore pits ran a-plenty.
Am
Am~E
But the cardboard filled windows
G
Am
And old men on the benches
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G
Am
Tell you now that the whole town is empty.
Am
Am~E
In the north end of town,
G
Am
My own children are grown
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G
Am
But I was raised on the other.
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Am~E
In the wee hours of youth,
G
Am
My mother took sick
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G
Am
And I was brought up by my brother.
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Am~E
The iron ore poured
G
Am
As the years passed the door,
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G
Am
The drag lines an’ the shovels they was a-humming.
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Am~E
‘Til one day my brother
G
Am
Failed to come home
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G
Am
The same as my father before him.
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Am~E
Well a long winter’s wait,
G
Am
From the window I watched.
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G
Am
My friends they couldn’t have been kinder.
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Am~E
And my schooling was cut
G
Am
As I quit in the spring
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G
Am
To marry John Thomas, a miner.
Am
Am~E
Oh the years passed again
G
Am
And the givin’ was good,
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G
Am
With the lunch bucket filled every season.
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Am~E
What with three babies born,
G
Am
The work was cut down
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G
Am
To a half-a-day shift with no reason.
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Am~E
Then the shaft was soon shut
G
Am
And more work was cut,
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G
Am
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen.
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Am~E
‘Til a man come to speak
G
Am
And he said, in one week
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G
Am
That number eleven was closin’.
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Am~E
They complained in the East,
G
Am
They are paying too high.
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G
Am
They say that your ore ain’t worth digging.
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Am~E
That it’s much cheaper down
G
Am
In the South American towns
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G
Am
Where the miners work almost for nothing.
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Am~E
So the mining gates locked
G
Am
And the red iron rotted
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G
Am
And the room smelled heavy from drinking.
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Am~E
When the sad, silent song
G
Am
Made the hour twice as long
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G
Am
As I waited for the sun to go sinking.
Am
Am~E
I lived by the window
G
Am
As he talked to himself,
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G
Am
This silence of tongues it was building.
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Am~E
Till one morning’s wake,
G
Am
The bed it was bare,
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G
Am
And I’s left alone with three children.
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Am~E
The summer is gone,
G
Am
The ground’s turning cold,
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G
Am
The stores one by one they’re a-foldin’.
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Am~E
My children will go
G
Am
As soon as they grow.
Am
G
Am
Well, there ain’t nothing here now to hold them.
Am~E
G
Am
