Sweeney
D
A
1. It was somewhere in September and the sun was goin'
down,
A7 D
when I came
in search of coffee, to a
A
Come-And-Have-A-Drink we'll
call it, 'tis a fitting name I think,
A7 D
and 'twas
raining, for a wonder, up at Come-And-Have-A-Drink.
G D
Underneath the pub verandah I was resting on a bunk,
E
A - A7
when a stranger rose before me,
and he said that he was drunk.
D A
He apologised for speaking, there
was no offence, he swore,
A7 D
but he somehow seemed to fancy
that he'd seen my face before.
D A
2. He agreed you can't remember all the chaps you chance to meet,
A7 D
and he said his name was Sweeney, people
lived in
A
He was camping in a stable,
that he swore that he was right,
A7 D
only for the
blanky horses walkin' over
him all night.
G D
He'd apparently been fighting,
for his face was black and blue,
E A - A7
and it looked as though the
horses had been treading on him too.
D A
But an honest genial twinkle
in the eye that wasn't hurt
A7
D
seemed to
hint of something better, spite of drink and rags and dirt.
D A
3. He was born in
A7 D
that he'd like to see the
city, 'ere the liquor finished him.
A
But he couldn't raise the
money, he was damned if he could think,
A7 D
what the government was doing
here, he offered me a drink.
D A
4. I declined, 'twas self-denial, and I lectured him on booze,
A7 D
using all
the hackneyed arguments that preachers mostly use.
A
Things I'd heard in
temperance lectures, I was young and rather green,
A7 D
and I ended by referring to
the man he might have been.
G D
But he couldn't stay to argue,
for his beer was nearly gone,
E A - A7
he was glad, he said, to meet
me, and he'd see me later on.
D
A
But he guessed he'd have to go
and get his bottle filled again,
A7 D
and he gave a lurch and
vanished in the darkness and the rain.
D A
And of afternoons in cities, when the rain is
on the land,
A7 D
- G - D
visions come to me of Sweeney
with his bottle in his hand.
(orig. = capo 2nd) (Slim
Dusty)