F                    Dm           
A long time ago came a man on a track 
C                           Bb                 F  
walking thirty miles with a sack on his back 
       Bb                C        F                      C7 
and he put down his load where he thought it was the best 
Bb                        Gm7          Bb 
he made a home in the wilderness 
F          Dm       
he built a cabin and a winter store 
       C                      Am     Bb              F 
and he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore 
Bb            C               F               C 
and the other travellers came riding down the track 
         Bb                 F/A      Gm7                 Bb 
and they never went further and they never went back 
F                      Dm  
then came the churches then came the schools 
C                     Bb                  F 
then came the lawyers then came the rules 
Bb            Csus4      C   F                 C 
then came the trains and the trucks with their loads 
        Bb             Bb                        Dm  
and the dirty old track   was the telegraph road 
F                     Dm 
Then came the mines - then came the ore 
C                             Bb             Bb  F       
then there was the hard times then there was a   war 
Bb               C     F                 C7 
telegraph sang a song about the world outside 
Bb                    Gm7 
telegraph road got so deep and so wide 
Bb             F 
like a rolling river. . . 


D    D7/F#  G 
     And my radio says tonight it's gonna freeze 
Dm 
people driving home from the factories 
        C 
there's six lanes of traffic 
Am                      Dm 
     three lanes moving slow. . . 


C            F                           Dm 
   I used to like to go to work but they shut it down 
              C                                  Bb                
   I've got a right to go to work but there's no work here to be found 
   F            Bb                   C      F          C7 
   yes and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owed 
         Bb                      Gm7 
   we're gonna have to reap from seed that's been sowed 
Bb         F                             Dm    
   and the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles 
            C                              Bb 
   they can always fly away from this rain and this cold 
                     C7                F         
   you can here them singing out their telegraph code 
   C        Bb                        Dm    
   all the way down the telegraph road 


C               F                     Dm 
   You know I'd sooner forget but I remember those nights 
        C                             Bb 
   when life was just a bet on a race between the lights 
   F            Bb              C   F            C7 
   you had your head on my shoulder you had your hand in my hair 
       Bb                               Gm7                 
   now you act a little colder like you don't seem to care 
Bb       F                         Dm 
   but believe in me baby and I'll take you away 
        C                        Bb 
   from out of this darkness and into the day 
                        C                F             C 
   from these rivers of headlights these rivers of rain 
F/A         Bb                  C7  F                  C 
   from the anger that lives on the streets with these names 
F/A     Bb                       C7 F          F/A 
   'cos I've run every red light on memory lane 
        Bb               C7 F         C      F/A  
   I've seen desperation explode into flames 
Bb             C7      F       C 
   and I don't want to see it again. . . 
        Am                        Dm 
   From all of these signs saying sorry but we're closed 
           Bb 
   all the way