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30000 Pounds Of Bananas

Harry Chapin

Text File

30,000 Pounds of Bananas - Harry Chapin

The song is played with a capo that throughout the song climbs the frets.  For 
proof, watch him live on YouTube.

All chords used are to current Capo setting:
 E: 022100          D: xx0232          B: x24442
E*: 022300       D/C#: x4x232          G: 355433
E7: 022030          A: 002220         Bm: 224432
Am: 002210         A*: 577655

CAPO 1st FRET

INTRO: E  E* E  E* (x2)

       E                        E7
It was just after dark when the truck started down
    A                    Am              E
The hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
         D      D/C#     Bm        E
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
         D      D/C#     Bm        E
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

LINK: E  E* E  E*

         E
He was a young driver,
A*
just out on his second job.
E
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
    A                Am
For everyone in that coal-scarred city,
      E
Where children play without despair
   A*                                       E
In backyard slag piles, and folks manage to eat each day
      D      D/C#     Bm        E
About thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
                D      D/C#     Bm
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

TEMPO INCREASE

LINK: E  E* E  E*

   E                     E7
He passed a sign that he should have seen,
         A                 Am              E
saying, "Shift to low gear or fifty dollar fine, my friend."
       A                          Am
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman
        E
Who was waiting at the journey's end.
   A                Am
He started down the two-mile drop,
    E                                           B
The curving road that wound from the top of the hill.
       E
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot.

Just a few more miles to go,
     A                Am                E
Then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away.
                 D      D/C#     Bm        E
And the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
                  D      D/C#     Bm     (Slide CAPO 2nd FRET)
Yes, the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

TEMPO INCREASE

       E                    E7              A         Am       E
He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him.
       E                   E7                        A
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the night's
Am            E
Delights went through him.
    E (strum)                 E (strum)
His foot nursed the brakes to slow him down,
        Bm (strum)           Bm (strum)
But the pedal floored easy without a sound.
          E
He said, "Christ!"
                                       Am
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
               E
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,

Riding on his fear-hunched back
     A*
With every one of those yellow-green,
                 D      D/C#     Bm        E
I'm telling you, thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
                D      D/C#     Bm     (Slide CAPO 3rd FRET)
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

DOUBLE TIME!

   E               E7                  A   Am       E
He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.
       E                   E7             A      Am       E
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.
              A              E
And he said, "God, make it a dream!"
      G        D         A
As he rode his last ride down.
              A              E
And he said, "God, make it a dream!"
      G        D         A
As he rode his last ride down.
           Am
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
E
Clipped off thirteen telephone poles,
Am
Hit two houses, bruised eight trees,
    E
And Blue-Crossed seven people.
       Bm
It was then he lost his head,
       Am                              E
Not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
N.C.
And he smeared for four hundred yards

Along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
          D      D/C#     Bm        E
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas.


ORIGINAL TEMPO
                                 (Fade in) E
You see the man who told me about it on the bus,
      A                       Am        E
As it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
   E
He shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
       A     N.C.
And he said (and this is exactly what he said),

"Boy, that sure must've been something.

Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
                D      D/F#     Bm        N.C.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.
E
Of bananas. (Repeat with Barred F, then F#, etc.  until fade out.)

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30000 Pounds Of Bananas

Harry Chapin