Harry Chapin – 30000 Pounds Of Bananas (Guitar)

Capo 1
Key
-
Versions (2)

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Chords

The song is played with a capo that throughout the song climbs the frets. For proof, watch him live on YouTube. All chords used are to current Capo setting: E: 022100 D: xx0232 B: x24442 E*: 022300 D/C#: x4x232 G: 355433 E7: 022030 A: 002220 Bm: 224432 Am: 002210 A*: 577655 CAPO 1st FRET INTRO: E E* E E* (x2)
       E                        E7
It was just after dark when the truck started down

    A                    Am              E
The hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.

         D      D/C#     Bm        E
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

         D      D/C#     Bm        E
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
LINK: E E* E E*
         E
He was a young driver,
A* just out on his second job.
E
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits

    A                Am
For everyone in that coal-scarred city,

      E
Where children play without despair
A* E In backyard slag piles, and folks manage to eat each day
      D      D/C#     Bm        E
About thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

                D      D/C#     Bm
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
TEMPO INCREASE LINK: E E* E E*
   E                     E7
He passed a sign that he should have seen,

         A                 Am              E
saying, "Shift to low gear or fifty dollar fine, my friend."

       A                          Am
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman

        E
Who was waiting at the journey's end.

   A                Am
He started down the two-mile drop,

    E                                           B
The curving road that wound from the top of the hill.

       E
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot.
Just a few more miles to go,
     A                Am                E
Then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away.

                 D      D/C#     Bm        E
And the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
D D/C# Bm (Slide CAPO 2nd FRET) Yes, the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas. TEMPO INCREASE
       E                    E7              A         Am       E
He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him.

       E                   E7                        A
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the night's

Am            E
Delights went through him.
E (strum) E (strum) His foot nursed the brakes to slow him down, Bm (strum) Bm (strum) But the pedal floored easy without a sound.
          E
He said, "Christ!"

                                       Am
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.

               E
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
Riding on his fear-hunched back A* With every one of those yellow-green,
                 D      D/C#     Bm        E
I'm telling you, thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
D D/C# Bm (Slide CAPO 3rd FRET) Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas. DOUBLE TIME!
   E               E7                  A   Am       E
He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.

       E                   E7             A      Am       E
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.

              A              Bm
And he said, "God, make it a dream!"

      G        D         A
As he rode his last ride down.

              A              Bm
And he said, "God, make it a dream!"

      G        D         A
As he rode his last ride down.

           Am
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,

E
Clipped off thirteen telephone poles,

Am
Hit two houses, bruised eight trees,

    E
And Blue-Crossed seven people.

       Bm
It was then he lost his head,

       Am                              E
Not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
N.C. And he smeared for four hundred yards Along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
          D      D/C#     Bm        E
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
ORIGINAL TEMPO (Fade in) E You see the man who told me about it on the bus,
      A                       Am        E
As it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

   E
He shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
A N.C. And he said (and this is exactly what he said), "Boy, that sure must've been something. Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
                D      D/F#     Bm        N.C.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.

E
Of bananas. (Repeat with Barred F, then F#, etc.  until fade out.)