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. From Greatest Stories Live: Ending #1 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 Tabbed by Archibald Edmund Binns Pueblano '09
