Harry Chapin – 30000 Pounds Of Bananas chords

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              Gthe hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
          F       Em       Dm         GCarrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
          F       Em       Dm         GCarrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

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

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

G                                               C       Cm       GHe 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                  Gdelights went through him.
     Dm (strum)                Dm(strum)His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down.
        GBut the pedal floored easy without a sound.
        DHe said "Christ!"
                                                       GIt was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
         C        CmHe was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
Griding on his fear-hunched back
        C              Cm      Gwas every one of those yellow green
                  FI'm telling you thirty....

G                                       C    Cm          He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.
G                                       C    CmAnd he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.
              G               DAnd he said "God, make it a dream!"
       F        C          Gas he rode his last ride down.
              G               DAnd he said "God, make it a dream!"
       F        C          Gas 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.
        Dmit was then he lost his head,
                                         Gnot to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
        DmAnd he smeared for four hundred yards
                                           Galong the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
            FAll those thirty.....

GYou know the man who told me about it on the bus,
                                C      Cmas it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
      Dmhe shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
    Gand 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           GYes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.


From Greatest Stories Live: Ending #1

GYes, we have no bananas,
     C          DWe have no bananas today
(Spoken: And if that wasn't enough)
GYes, we have no bananas,
 C           DBananas 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         Gshe sits there, silently weeping,
Dm                                  Gand though she lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Dm                        GShe never ever eats ... Bananas
            F       Em       Dm            G Not one of thirty thousand pounds .... of bananas 

Tabbed by Archibald Edmund Binns
Pueblano '09