Slim Dusty - Clancy Of The Overflow Chords

[Intro]
F
 
 
[Verse]
      F                            C7
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
                                                           F
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
                                      C7
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
                                                          F
Just 'on spec', addressed as follows, 'Clancy, of The Overflow'.
 
 
[Verse]
       F                         C7
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
                                                             F
And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar
                                             C7
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
                                                                 F
'Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.'
 
 
[Verse]
      F                          C7
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
                                                           F
Gone a-droving 'down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go;
                                          C7
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
                                                              F
"For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know."
 
 
[Verse]
        G                                       D
And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
                                                  G
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
                                       D
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
                                                    G
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.
 
 
[Verse]
       G                             D
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
                                                     G
Of the tramways and the 'buses making hurry down the street,
                                   D
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
                                                          G
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.
 
 
[Verse]
        G                                   D
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
                                                       G
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
                                            D
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
                                                         G
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.
 
 
[Verse]
      A                             E
And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
                                                          A
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
                                        E
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal
                                                      A
But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of 'The Overflow'.
 
 
[Verse]
      A                          E
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
                                                           A
Gone a-droving 'down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go;
                                          E
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
                                     N.C.                     A
"For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know."