The Dubliners – Hot Asphalt (Guitar)

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Chords

[Verse 1]
     Em                             G                D
Good evening all my jolly lads, I'm glad to find you well,

           Em                            D
If you'll gather all around me now the story I will tell,

          Em                    G            D
For I've got a situation and begorrah and begob,

        Em                    D       Em
I can whisper all the weekly wage of nineteen bob.

       G                                 G
'Tis twelve months come October since I left me native home,

       Em                             D
After helping the Killarney boys to bring the harvest down.

     Em                          G                D
But now I wear the geansai and around me waist a belt.

         Em                       D         Em
I'm the gaffer of the squad that makes the hot asphalt.
[Chorus]
       G                           G
    Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat.

               Em                           D
    And if it doesn't last forever sure I swear I'll eat me hat,

                Em                                 G            D
    Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt

         Em                     D      Em
    any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt.
[Verse 2]
   Em                             G                D
The other night a copper comes and he says to me: "McGuire,

      Em                            D
Would you kindly let me light me pipe down at your boiler fire?"

          Em                    G            D
And he planks himself right down in front, with hobnails up, till late,

        Em                    D       Em
And says I: "Me decent man, you'd better go and find your bate!"

       G                                 G
He ups and yells, "I'm down on you I'm up to all yer pranks,

       Em                             D
Don't I know you for a traitor from the Tipperary ranks?"

     Em                          G                D
Boys I hit straight from the shoulder and I gave him such a belt

         Em                       D         Em
That I knocked him into the boiler full of hot asphalt.
[Chorus]
           G                           G
    Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat.

               Em                           D
    And if it doesn't last forever sure I swear I'll eat me hat,

                Em                                 G            D
    Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt

         Em                     D      Em
    any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt.
[Verse 3]
     Em                             G                D
We quickly dragged him out again and we threw him in the tub,

      Em                            D
 And with soap and warm water we began to rub and scrub,

          Em                    G            D
But devil the thing, it hardened and it turned him hard as stone

        Em                    D       Em
And with every other rub sure you could hear the copper groan.

       G                                 G
"I'm thinking", says O'Reilly, "that he's lookin' like Ould Nick,

       Em                             D
And burn me if I am not inclined to claim him with me pick."

     Em                          G                D
"Now", says I, "it would be 'asier to boil him till he melts,

         Em                       D         Em
and to stir him nice and 'asy in the hot asphalt."
[Chorus]
           G                           G
    Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat.

               Em                           D
    And if it doesn't last forever sure I swear I'll eat me hat,

                Em                                 G            D
    Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt

         Em                     D      Em
    any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt.
[Verse 4]
     Em                             G                D
You may talk about yer sailorlads, ballad singers and the rest,

      Em                            D
Your shoemakers and your tailors but we please the ladies best.

          Em                    G            D
The only ones who know the way their flinty hearts to melt

        Em                    D       Em
are the lads around the boiler making hot asphalt.

       G                                 G
With rubbing and with scrubbing sure I caught me death of cold,

       Em                             D
and for scientific purposes me body it was sold,

     Em                          G                D
In the Kelvingrove museum me boys, I'm hangin' in me pelt,

         Em                       D         Em
As a monument to the Irish mixing hot asphalt!
[Chorus]
           G                           G
    Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat.

               Em                           D
    And if it doesn't last forever sure I swear I'll eat me hat,

                Em                                 G            D
    Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt

         Em                     D      Em
    any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt.