Slim Dusty – Clancy Of The Overflow (Guitar)

      F                            C7
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better

                                                           F
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,

                                      C7
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,

                                                          F
Just 'on spec', addressed as follows, 'Clancy, of The Overflow'.

       F                         C7
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,

                                                             F
And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar

                                             C7
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:

                                                                 F
'Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.'

      F                          C7
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

                                                           F
Gone a-droving 'down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go;

                                          C7
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,

                                                              F
"For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know."

        G                                       D
And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him

                                                  G
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,

                                       D
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,

                                                    G
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.

       G                             D
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle

                                                     G
Of the tramways and the 'buses making hurry down the street,

                                   D
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,

                                                          G
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

        G                                   D
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me

                                                       G
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,

                                            D
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,

                                                         G
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

      A                             E
And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,

                                                          A
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,

                                        E
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal

                                                      A
But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of 'The Overflow'.

      A                          E
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

                                                           A
Gone a-droving 'down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go;

                                          E
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,

                                     N.C.                     A
"For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know."