Slim Dusty – The Ghost Of Ben Hall (Guitar)

     C
In a bend where the Lachlan flows peacefully on,

                          G
it stands in a clump of belahs.

                                  C
it dreams 'neath the light of the stars.

      C
It is tenanted now by the owls and the bats,

                                    G
and they fly in and out through the door.

                         C
ride up to the shanty no more.

         G
Oh, what tales it could tell if its walls had a tongue,

                          D
of its lurid and larrikan past.

       D
Of the jokes that were played and the songs that were sung,

         D7                         G
when the gin and the whiskey flowed fast.

  G
A hard drinking lot were those bushmen of old,

                                     C
and they gathered from near and from far,

                   G
Oh, but all of the riders lie under the mould,

    D                        G
who drank in that tumbledown bar.

    C
Ben Hall often sampled it's whisky and gin,

                                  G
when he came to the bend with his gang.

        G
And the walls and the rafters rang loud to the din,

                                  C
of the boisterous songs that they sang.

    C
Ben Hall was a troublesome person at times,

                               G
but he paid like a man for his grog.

       G
And he paid in full measure at last for his crimes,

                                C
the police shot him down like a dog.

        G
Oh, but time is a tyrant and time travels fast,

                                        D
and the old shanty stands in the shade.

    D
And mourns for the men of that picturesque past,

       D7                        G
of the jokes and the antics they played.

    G
The curlews lament from the rushes and reeds,

                                   C
when the shadows of evening descend.

                        G
Big, bearded bushmen on half broken steeds,

     D                     G
come riding no more to the bend.

G G G C
M-m-m-m

        C
But the old hands declare that on cold winter nights,

                               G
when the heavens are misty and blurred.

    G
The Shanty is filled with mysterious lights,

    D7                      C
and voices and laughter are heard.

    C
And they say you can see when the door swings ajar,

                           G
a figure black bearded and tall.

  G
Revolver in hand by the side of the bar,

                                     C
and they swear it's the ghost of Ben Hall.

F                       C
Revolver in hand by the side of the bar,

         G                           C
and they swear it's the ghost of Ben Hall.

C F F                          C
      Look out or I'll shoot. ....