Pete Seeger – The Clearwater (Guitar)

      Eb                             Ab
I was sitting on my front porch as I watched the river rot,

Eb                                   Bb7
Thinking about the sturgeon that are gone but not forgot.

        Eb                        Ab
And the buffalo all restless underneath the prairie sod,

        Eb                                 Bb7             Eb
And the smoke stacked up to heaven so's it hid the face of God.

           Ab                                 Eb
There were soldiers marching by my door and a tap upon my phone,

  Eb                                   Bb7
A freeway inching toward me that would someday eat my home.

        Eb                                  Ab
And the smokestacks hid a sunset that would never come again,

          Eb                           Bb7                Eb
When they brought the sloop Clearwater sailing 'round thе bend.

          Eb                              Ab
Well, the captain had a mustache that was nineteen inchеs long,

        Eb                           Bb7
And the shanty master paced the deck roaring out a song.

    Eb                               Ab
The man who held the tiller wore his hair down to his knees,

      Eb                              Bb7          Eb
And a hundred tons of canvas billowed out into the breeze.

        Ab                                  Eb
But the redwood trees are crashing down out on the Western coast,

   Eb                         Bb7
An angry shadowy army follows Crazy Horse's ghost.

    Eb                            Ab
The eagle's nest is barren as the mountain lion's den,

          Eb                           Bb7                Eb
When they brought the sloop Clearwater sailing 'round the bend.

          Eb                                 Ab
Well, the sloop cut through the sewage lying on the river's face,

     Eb                                   Bb7
They docked her 'mid the garbage that was all around the place.

    Eb                                Ab
The crew struck up a hornpipe and the boots rang on the wood,

   Eb                          Bb7            Eb
It echoed on the river and the river found it good.

            Ab                          Eb
But there's lightning in the Asian sky, thunder in the slums,

        Eb                               Bb7
You can hear the Indians tuning up their long-forgotten drums.

Eb                                        Ab
Children clap their hands and laugh while men are killing men,

          Eb                           Bb7                Eb
When they brought the sloop Clearwater sailing 'round the bend.

  Eb                               Ab
I said you people all are fools to dance and sing and shout,

          Eb                                Bb7
When your ship's so deep in liquid shit, it never can get out.

          Eb                              Ab
Right now children cry from hunger, grown men get mean from shame,

  Eb                            Bb7              Eb
A war rages in every heart, the very ground's in flame.

    Ab                            Eb
You sail your dirty river and you sing your little songs,

    Eb                             Bb7
You dance your pretty dances and recite your petty wrongs.

          Eb                         Ab
Don't you know that Abiyoyo's making footprints in the fen,

          Eb                          Bb7                Eb
While you bring your sloop Clearwater sailing 'round the bend.

          Eb                                          Ab
Well, the crew just laughed and danced some more, and beads began to fling,

Eb                                     Bb7
Beards were lifted to the skies as the crew began to sing.

  Eb                               Ab
A black man rose upon the deck and preached a sermon there,

  Eb                                 Bb7             Eb
A crewman capered on the mast like a dancing grizzly bear.

  Ab                                   Eb
I said you people all are fools, but I guess I am one too.

Eb                                Bb7
Suddenly the guns went quiet, the river all was new.

    Eb                                     Ab
The smoke clouds cleared, I almost wept to see the skies again,

          Eb                           Bb7                Eb
When they brought the sloop Clearwater sailing 'round the bend.

          Eb                                       Ab
Well, the mountains rang, the children laughed and women raised a song,

    Eb                               Bb7
The bison thundered down the plain a hundred thousand strong.

    Eb                                     Ab
The Ghost Dance tent was raised again, the lion wandered free,

        Eb                             Bb7              Eb
And the river ran like silver from the mountains to the sea.

          Ab                            Eb
There was love and joy and brotherhood, peace the world around,

Eb                             Bb7
Life and paint and energy, and trees and taste and sound.

    Eb                      Ab
And Abiyoyo danced a solemn waltz out in the fen,

        Eb                           Bb7                Eb
When we brought the sloop Clearwater sailing 'round the bend.

          Eb                                     Ab
Well, the sloop is gone, once again I'm ready to watch the river rot,

      Eb                       Bb7
While others feel the skyfire, others hug the shot.

         Eb                                      Ab
But some folks in town are up and around, asking what, how, why and when,

     Eb                          Bb7                     Eb
Ever since that sloop Clearwater come sailing 'round the bend.