Thousands are sailing    (video)

 

    Em - D - C    - Em - D - C   - G

 

            G                                                C

1. The island, it is silent now, but the ghosts still haunt the waves,

                  G                       Em                          Am                        D

    and the torch lights up a famished man who fortune could not save.

                    G                                              C

    Did you work upon the railroad, did you rid the streets of crime ?

                       G                        Em

    Were your dollars from the White House,

                       D                        G

    were they from the five and dime ?

 

                 Em                                                         C                          G

    Did the old songs taunt or cheer you, and did they still make you cry ?

                 Em                                                          Am                        D

  Did you count the months and years, or did your teardrops quickly dry ?

            G                                                  C

    Ah, no says he, ‘twas not to be, on a coffin ship I came here,

               G              Em                     D                                 G

    and I never even got so far that they could change my name.

 

       Em                                 D                        Am

    Thousands are sailing across the western ocean,

            Em                G              D                          C

    to a land of opportunity that some of them will never see.

     Em                             D                        Am

    Fortune prevailing across the western ocean,

             Em                            G

    their bellies full and their spirits free,

                   D                         Am                          C

    they’ll break the chains of poverty, and they’ll dance.

 

+  C - Em - D   - G

 

                 G                                              C

2. In Manhattan’s desert twilight, in the death of afternoon,

                         G                         Em                      Am                         D

    we stepped hand in hand on Broadway, like the first man on the moon.

                    G                                                       C

    And the blackbird broke the silence, as you whistled it so sweet,

                   G                      Em                           D                            G

    and in Brendan Behan’s footsteps, I danced up and down the street.

 

                   Em                                                   C                    G

    Then we said goodnight to Broadway, giving it our best regards,

                  Em                                             Am                                    D

 tipped our hats to Mister Cohan, dear old Times Square’s favourite bard.

                     G                                              C

    Then we raised a glass to J.F.K., and a dozen more besides,

                  G                    Em                         D                          G

    when I got back to my empty room, I suppose I must have cried.

 

        Em                               D                    Am

    Thousands are sailing again across the ocean,

                      Em                 G                D                C

    where the hand of opportunity draws tickets in a lottery.

       Em                                    D                           Am

    Postcards we’re mailing of sky-blue skies and oceans,

              Em                         G

    from rooms the daylight never sees,

                D                                 Am

    where lights don’t grow on Christmas trees,

                   C                                          Em    - D

    and we dance to the music, and we dance.            +  C - Em - D

 

+  Em - G - D   - Em - G - D   - Em - G - D - G-D-G

 

       Em                                 D                       Am

    Thousands are sailing across the western ocean,

                     Em                  G                 D               C

    where the hand of opportunity draws tickets in a lottery.

               Em                                          D                            Am

    Where e’er we go, we celebrate the land that makes us refugees,

              Em                         G                            D                        Am

    from fear of priests with empty plates, from quilt and weeping effigies,

                C                                          Em      - D

    till we dance to the music, and we dance.

 

+  C - Em - D     - C - Em - D (2x) ….

 

(orig. = capo 2nd)    (The Pogues)