Original: capo at 2nd fret (all chords relative)
Best served with lots of harmonica, this version is simplified, the original uses some 5 chords
 
 
Em                                  D
The caravan flipped over two, three times went spinning down the carriageway
Em                                D                                              Em 
Breaking up into splinters wheels spinning around in the dust at the foot of the hill
Em                           D
And all the old clothes, the pots and pans and the photographs
Em                                        D
The little things of those people's lives strewn across the road 
 
 
Chorus:
G                    D      Em
We all want what we cannot have
G                           D         Em
We've driven so far, we can never get back
               G                   D       Bm
Sitting in the all-night cafe in a curl of smoke
        C
Telling tales of the road 
 
 
Em                                             D
By the glow of a flickering lighter we went stumbling forward through the corridor
Em                             D                     
Up the broken staircase to the top of the trail of shattered glass
     Em                            D
Damp mattresses in the doorway, an old abandoned take-away
Em                      D
Nothing much to tell us if and where you'd gone
    C
By now you could be miles away 
 
 
Chorus:
G                   D      Em
We all want what we cannot have
G                           D         Em
We've driven so far, we can never get back
               G                   D       Bm
Sitting in the all-night cafe in a curl of smoke
        C
Telling tales of the road
 

Bridge: 
    D                                                  G                C
And everyone just keeps moving on, you turn around and find they're all gone
    D                                             G          C    Am   Em 
The lights go out one by one, the prodigal son is not coming home 
 
 
Em                                             D                                   Em
Down at the ferrybridge junction beneath the cooling towers a man stood hitching a ride
Em                             D   
And in the long grass at the verge his son was laid asleep
        Em                               D   
He said nothing's left to keep us in the city where we come from
Em                         D    
Take us far away from here looking for work and the wishing well
     Em                             D    
This afternoon the sunlight spilled shadows across the golden hills
     Em                                        D    
They searched us at the border but they're not looking for what we're hiding
            C
They're not looking for what we're hiding 
 
 
Chorus:
G                    D      Em
We just want what we cannot have
G                           D         Em
We've driven so far, we can never get back
               G                   D       Bm
Sitting in the all-night cafe in a curl of smoke
        C
Telling tales of the road        
               G                   D       Bm
Sitting in the all-night cafe in a curl of smoke
        C
Telling tales of the road        
             Am    Em
Tales of the road