Home » H » Harry Chapin »

Harry Chapin - 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas Chords

Artists:  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z # 

30,000 Pounds Of Bananas Chords

(ver. 2)
Harry Chapin
The Recorded version is in E, but I find it's much easier to play in G.
Bar the Cm, all the other chords are standard.


G                    
It was just after dark when the truck started down
    C                    Cm              G
the hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
          F       Em       Dm         G
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
          F       Em       Dm         G
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

G
He was a young driver,
      C           Cm
just out on his second job.
      G
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
      C                Cm
for everyone in that coal-scarred city
      G 
where children play without despair
      C       Cm                 G
in backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day
         F       Em.....
about thirty thousand .....

G
He passed a sign that he should have seen,
           C             Cm                        G
saying "shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend."
                     C               Cm
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman
G
who was waiting at the journey's end.
          C        Cm
He started down the two mile drop,
          G                                 D
the curving road that wound from the top of the hill.
          D                     D                             G
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot.
          G
Just a few more miles to go,
             C           Cm                 G
then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away.
                    F....
and the smell of thirty 

G                                               C       Cm       G
He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him.
G                                                      C      
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights
  Cm                  G
delights went through him.
     Dm (strum)                Dm(strum)
His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down.
        G
But the pedal floored easy without a sound.
        D
He said "Christ!"
                                                       G
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
         C        Cm
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
G
riding on his fear-hunched back
        C              Cm      G
was every one of those yellow green
                  F
I'm telling you thirty....

G                                       C    Cm          
He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.
G                                       C    Cm
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.
              G               D
And he said "God, make it a dream!"
       F        C          G
as he rode his last ride down.
              G               D
And he said "God, make it a dream!"
       F        C          G
as he rode his last ride down.
        Cm(strum)
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
        G(strum)
clipped off thirteen telephone poles,
        Cm(strum)
hit two houses, bruised eight trees,
        G(strum)
and Blue-Crossed seven people.
        Dm
it was then he lost his head,
                                         G
not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
        Dm
And he smeared for four hundred yards
                                           G
along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
            F
All those thirty.....

G
You know the man who told me about it on the bus,
                                C      Cm
as it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
      Dm
he shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
    G
and he said (and this is exactly what he said)
   N.C.
"Boy that sure must've been something.
Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
                  F       Em     Dm           G
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.



G
Yes, we have no bananas,
     C          D
We have no bananas today
(Spoken: And if that wasn't enough)
G
Yes, we have no bananas,
 C           D
Bananas in Scranton, P A


Ending #2:
G                             C        Cm          
A woman walks into her room where her child lies sleeping,
G         
and when she sees his eyes are closed,
C                Cm         G
she sits there, silently weeping,
Dm                                  G
and though she lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Dm                        G
She never ever eats ... Bananas
            F       Em       Dm            G 
Not one of thirty thousand pounds .... of bananas 

Pueblano '09
            
Submit corrections

↑ Back to top | Tablatures and chords for acoustic guitar and electric guitar, ukulele, drums are parodies/interpretations of the original songs. You may use it for private study, scholarship, research or language learning purposes only