Missy Higgins – Droving Woman (Guitar)

      C              Am          G
Well, she buried him down on the edge of the town,

      C            Am              G
Where the brigalow suckers, on the cemetery creep.

    C          Am                 G
She stood with them children in a heavy brown gown,

         C             G            F
What you want you just can't always keep.

      C           Am       G
"Well I'm sorry", I said, "I knew him so well",

       C                        G
Though your body is young, well you never can tell.

     Em          C           Am           G
When the hand of fate brings it's fateful death knell",

         C               G            F
She just turned with the slightest of smiles.

    C              Am            G
She said "From the start well we knewed it so hard,

   C           Am         G
We were always handed the severest of cards.

C           Am            G
A honeymoon spent droving Jamieson's stock,

C                   G             F
Through the wildest winter you've seen.

       C        Am         G
And my Romantic notions of horses and land,

          C        Am          G
They were soon dis-pelled as a fantasised dream.

         C         Am           G
Watching cattle at night in the mid-winter cold,

        C            G        F
Turns a person, both wiry and old.

     C                Am             G
Well the flame of the breakfast fire'd be dead,

   C            Am           G
As the sun rose up, well you move up ahead.

       C            Am          G
I'd be breaking the camp up and rolling the beds,

       C          G               F
As you fanned the stock wider for feed.

         C              Am            G
When the weather turned sour with the onset of rain,

        C              Am          G
An' the truck'd bogged down to the axle main.

     C       Am              G
We'd move up ahead then with pack saddles and chains,

    C               G          F
And I'd wait in the mud by the road.

         C            Am             G
With the blankets and the canvas all hung out to dry,

        C           Am                 G
There's nothing for heating 'cause you couldn't light a fire.

    C        Am             G
And no stock permit for the forthcoming shire.

    C               G           F
(No lyric line)

    C                Am                 G
For the cattle don't camp where they're sloshing in rain,

     C            Am                       G
They keep walking forward all night like a dog on a chain.

    C                    Am           G
And he'd be red eyed and weary with a pack horse turned lame,

        C          G             F
And I'd wait miles behind in the mud.

       C            Am                G
It was down through Charleville up to Julia Creek,

          C         Am         G
Living on syrup and damper and salted corn meat.

       C                Am           G
We had nothing but the 'roos and the mailman to meet,

     C           G             F
We'd move up and down with the rains.

    C           Am             G
But them inland skies have the starriest of nights,

         C            Am            G
With the dance of the fire throwing flickering lights.

    C              Am             G
The beauty of it's sunsets were a constant delight,

       C           G          F
I felt that nature had let me intrude.

    C        Am               G
The enormous vastness of them inland plains,

       C            Am                       G
Brings you a lonely contentment to which you can't put a name.

     C                Am         G
It's a satisfied glow city folks seldom attain,

     C                     G           F
They spend their life on a right rigid rail.

    C              Am                 G
The kids got their schooling from the government mail,

   C            Am               G
We posted their work off at each cattle sale.

C               Am                G
They considered their learning, a self imposed jail,

       C           G                F
They'd rather help their father and fail.

      C                 Am         G
Early last month at the end of the dry,

       C       Am       G
He was given a horse no-body could ride.

C              Am          G
Alert were his ears with a fire in his stride,

       C             G          F
He was young and his spirit was wild.

   C              Am             G
To catch him each morning was an hour long battle,

          C               Am           G
We had to collar rope his near side to throw on the saddle.

        C        Am              G
Or he'd bite and he'd strike, he made my nerves rattle,

      C      G                 F
Pande-monium reigned with each ride.

         C            Am             G
It was a hot summers' mornin' at the government bore,

            C                Am              G
There was a stillness around like I've never felt before.

             C       Am              G
How could he know it was fate at his door,

         C          G            F
That was stealthily watchin' his moves.

   C          Am           G
He mounted up quick taking slack from the reins,

        C              Am            G
Grabbed a full hand of hair from the horse's long mane.

     C                   Am             G
He'd just hit the saddle when the horse went insane,

         C         G         F
Churning dust in a frenzy of fear.

    C                   Am            G
The girth on the saddle let go at the ring,

    C                 Am                G
The surcingle slipped it was impossible to cling.

               C            Am        G
The horse felt it go made a desperate fling,

       C             G             F
He was thrown to the length of the reins.

    C                 Am               G
And I heard his spine snap like a 'roo shooters' shot,

     C          Am          G
He'd busted his back on the concreted trough.

C                 Am                G
Sickness and fear were the feelings I got,

        C            G        F
For the doctor was a six hour drive.

    C               Am                  G
And I looked at his face and his colour turned white,

          C                Am              G
He turned slowly and said "I can't make it till night.

C                  Am           G
My body is broken, I'm bleedin' inside",

        C           G            F
And the life slowly drained from his eyes.

            C                     Am            G
'Guess I'll sell up the plant now and move back to town,

           C              Am           G
Before the winter returns with a chill on the ground.

C                  Am                 G
'Cause what I have lost can seldom be found,

      C            G               F
I was blessed with the gentlest of men.

           C                 Am          G
Eventually the children will move to the east,

               C                Am                   G
But I couldn't stand the bustle of even a quiet city street.

C                Am                        G
I'll stay in the scrub here where my heart really beats,

    C             G          F
For some dogs are too old to change.