Key:
Introduction: C Eb F G Ab G F Eb B Eb F G Ab G F Eb Bb Eb F G Ab G F Eb Ab Eb F G Ab G F Eb G Eb F G Ab G F Eb
Cm
An eagle's nest on the head of an old redwood on one of the precipice-footed ridges
Cm
Above Ventana Creek, that jagged country which nothing but a fallen meteor will ever plow
Cm Cm/B
No horseman will ever ride there, no hunter cross this ridge but the winged ones
Cm/B Cm/Bb
No one will steal the eggs from this fortress
Cm/Bb Cm/Ab
The she-eagle is old, her mate was shot long ago, she is now mated with a son of hers
Cm/G G7
When lightning blasted her nest she built it again on the same tree, in the splinters of the thunder bolt
C F C F C F C F
In a broken shack an old man takes his time about dyin'
C F C F G G7
And just at the back a wild flowerbed that he'll lie in
C F C F
In dawn's new light a man might venture
C F C F C F C F
A horse drawn stage from Monterey.
Cm
The she-eagle is older than I: she was here when the fires of eighty-five raged on these ridges
Cm
She was lately fledged and dared not hunt ahead of them, but ate scorched meat
Cm Cm/Bb
The world has changed in her time humanity has multiplied,
Cm/Bb Cm/Ab
But not here men's hopes and thoughts and customs have changed, their
Cm/Ab Cm/G
Powers are enlarged, their powers and their follies have become fantastic.
C F C F C F C F
Spilled down the hill a wagon load of bodies lay scattered
C F C F C G G7
Shipwrecked at sea, limestone ore is all that mattered
C F C F
They took it from the hills right in through the cargo doors
C F C F C F C F
And how many ships have come and gone at Thurso's landing shore?
Cm
The unstable animal never has been changed so rapidly
Cm
The motor and the plane and the great war have gone over him
Cm
And Lenin has lived and Jehovah died: while the mother-eagle
Cm
Hunts the same hills, crying the same beautiful and lonely cry
Cm Cm/Bb
And is never tired: dreams the same dreams,
Cm/Bb Cm/Ab
And hears at night the rock-slides rattle and thunder in the throats of these living mountains
Cm/Ab Cm Cm/Bb
It is good for man to try all changes, progress and corruption, powers, peace and anguish,
Cm/Ab
Not to go down the dinosaur's way until all his capacities have been explored
Cm/Ab Cm/G
And it is good for him to know that his needs and nature are no more changed
G7
In fact, in ten thousand years than the beaks of eagles.
C F C F C F C F
Of the eagle's plight, we know that nature's balance is undone
C F C F G G7
And it's the birthright of man to unify and live his life as one
F C F C
A whisper of the word will let you soar with your soul
(Slow)