Gordon Bok – River Drive (Guitar)

Key
-

Auto-scroll

Chords

[Intro] D G [Verse]
                         C                  D7              G
I'd like to tell you the story, boys, about taking down the drive

                     Am                         G
My foreman's name is Buster, and he also does reside

         D                       C          G
Near the banks of this river, in Skowhegan, Maine

    C                  G                   D            G     D7  G
But when the rear gets in this year, we'll never drive again
[Verse]
                C               D7              G
Now this mighty Kennebec, she's something to be seen

                       Am                                      G
From her headwaters in Moosehead, down to Merrymeeting and the sea

     D                       C               G
With islands, back channels, white-water and dead

      C                G              D              G     D  D7  G
Great eddies and great remedies for a river driver's head
[Verse]
                     C              D7              G
We hang the booms in springtime, we sluice in summertime

                      Am                                       G
They're rafting wood across the lakes, five thousand cord to a time

D                                C                G
When the fall is coming on, it's time to take the rear

       C               G                 D                G     D  D7  G
Better head up to that cutoff, get old McLollen's butt in gear
[Verse]
                         C             D7                G
There's Buster and Gerry Bigelow, them Sanipass boys and me

                     Am                                  G
George Waters and my father rave about days that used to be

    D                                  C                 G
The Messer boys are hung-over, they're praying for a headwind

          C               G                      D              G      D  D7  G
So we can hitch her up at noontime, and they can start right in again
[Verse]
                      C                  D7                      G
From Indian Pond down to the Forks, it's white-water most of the way

                  Am                                    G
Riding them leaky bateaux, I don't think it's worth the pay

         D                                   C              G
From the Forks down through Carratunk, we're over the Wyman Dam

       C                G             D                    G    D7
By the first week in September, we're headed for the Solon Dam
[Verse]
     G                  C                 D7                G
From Solon down through Libby Country and down into North Anson

                    Am                              G
That oxbow it don't slow us up, we're down into Madison

   D                            C             G
We take those three dams, we're always on the run

        C                   G                D             G    D  D7  G
She's a-flying rear through Norridgewock and down to Skowhegan
[Verse]
                         C               D7               G
We send Dennis up to the Green Front and head for Shawmut Shores

                          Am                                     G
There's two weeks of hard picking, but then only be two or three more

    D                      C                  G
And now it is November, goddamn, it's getting cold

C               G                       D                G     D  D7  G
Best be careful where you step, there's no place to take hold
[Verse]
                            C                D7              G
We've been driving this old river, boys, two centuries and a half

                           Am                              G
Just to get that wood down to the mill, it almost makes me laugh

     D                                              C                 G
Some educated fools from god knows where, well they figured it should end

        C                G                  D            G     D7  G
So that outfit down to Augusta says, we can never drive again
[Verse]
              C               D7                G
Finally we do get her in, and we're all feeling good

                       Am                              G
We'll have us a little gathering to forget the goddamn wood

          D                             C                 G
With some liquor and some smoking, some bullshitting all around

    C              G                      D                   G
But everyone of us knows this is the last time we'll take her down

    C         G                      D                   G
Oh, everybody knows this is the last time we'll take her down