Key: C
Introduction:
C G
He was a sailor
D Em
Swarthy lean and proud
C G
He could take a schooner through a big sea swell
Am D
Aloof in the mainland crowd
C G
She loved his quiet laughter
D Em
Like a boy he'd shrug and grin
C G
Beach stretched wide at Port Mackay
Am D
With dreams upon the wind
C G D Em
He wore her name in a rose tattoo
C G Am
Long weekends of gins and lime
C G D Em
She lived in Cairns made plans to move
C G Am
Checkout girl part-time
C G D Em
And rumour said there's a boom ahead
C G Am
You can make your future here
Em
By the Gladstone pier
C G
A two roomed five row shelter
D Em
Empty hopes, the damp, the flies
C G
Prices hiked her face grew tight
Am D
And conversation died
C G D Em
And the foreman at the smelter said you're much too old
C G Am
Try the cane fields furthers north
C G D Em
And the clerk at the market said we don't buy trouble
C G Am
There's a strike down at the port
C G D Em
Then a six-day shift in a filthy pit
C G Am
The drag lines gouging coal
C G D Em
The black dust gnaws at your lungs and pores
C G Am
And anger rots your soul
C G D Em
And the queue round the block waits for you to drop
C G Am
Can you take it for another year
Em
By the Gladstone Pier
C G
Every Sunday he'd walk alone
D Em
Casting pebbles at the passing waves
C G
Plunge in brine cleanse his pride
Am D
A stronger man remains
C G
The crunch of shale and distant sails
D Em
Ached within his bones
C G
And ships upon the tide
Am D
Bound for ports unknown
C G
Soon he drank for comfort
D Em
She grew bitter in the weeks between
C G
The nights of beer and hollow cheer
Am D
And love became routine
C G
They fought, she left him crying
D Em
Angry words in a last café
C G
In desperation on a lonely night
Am D
She took the bus to Cairns next day
C G D Em
And Gladstone couples break that way
C G Am
Mutual blame and no regrets
C G D Em
And boomtown blues just fade to grey
C G D Em
"I've got to leave this dirty old town
C G Am
The rattle of broken men
C G D Em
And break these chains and wash the pain
C G Am
And put to sea again
C G D Em
Drained all my passion my anger and my fears
C G Am
And sank them in a flagon
Em
Under Gladstone pier"
C G
She saw him through the Greyhound window
D E
As the dawn glowed on the chrome
C G
Standing by the pier under sullen skies
Am D
Sea winds calling home
C G
From surfers up to Townsville
D Em
Past the high-rise colonies
C G
Fast food, cheap hotels
Am &