The Rumjacks - The Black Matilda

      "The Black Matilda" by The Rumjacks on their album "Gangs of New Holland"
Tabs by Bradhitsbass


[Verse]
        C                             G   
By the windy shores o' Canada bay I broke my fast for Lucia's day,
Am
A beguiling figure she blew my away & rattled me rovin' heart,
      C                               G
The snipers crack, the metronome of pricy heels on polished stone,
     Am                                                  N.C.
That I were soon to call my own by way o' the ancient art.


[Verse]
       C                                    G
I were cozened by a whiff-o-the-whim that scours the Costa harryin',
      Am
The likes o' men who've lost the lamp, the rudderless and bewildered,
       C                                 G
The sands below are littered wi'bones o'those who've taken a belly o'stones,
      Am
And turned their backs on wives & homes to follow the black Matilda.


[Chorus]
G                          Am
Ho-ro m'lovelies cross yer hearts & hope to die,
Am                                    G
If e'er ye're drawn beneath a murky fathom of her eye,
G                          Am
Ho-ro m'lovelies kiss yer arse a fond goodbye,
Am                                     G
Ye'll never again be able to lift yer head so bloody high.

              C                           G
For even the boys of Inverary know, from Tortuga to Jericho,
    Am
She took three hundred souls below off the deck o' the Andalusia,
     C                            G
The poets and the Sages tried to warn us down the ages,
       Am
Their blood drips from the pages where they tell o' the Black Matilda.


[Verse]
      C                               G
She pursed her lips & spun a tune as fine as any silk cocoon,
        Am
That's ever left McEacherns loom & held me there in a tawper,
    C                           G
A bastard I was born y'ken? I lived as tho' I'd never end,
      Am
I'll die a disenchanted man, they'll bury me as a pauper,


[Verse]
      C                                      G
For men have drowned & men have swung, the brig at Iron Cove were hung,
      Am
Wi' a garland of the old, the young, all battered & unfamiliar,
  C                                    G
There's no poetry there's no tune, no point in howlin' at the moon,
   Am
A caution to ye very soon ye'll waltz yer Black Matilda.


[Chorus]
G                          Am
Ho-ro m'lovelies cross yer hearts & hope to die,
Am                                     G
If e'er ye're drawn beneath a murky fathom of her eye,
G                          Am
Ho-ro m'lovelies kiss yer arse a fond goodbye,
Am                                     G
Ye'll never again be able to lift yer head so bloody high.

              C                           G
For even the boys of Inverary know, from Tortuga to Jericho,
    Am
She took three hundred souls below off the deck o' the Andalusia,
     C                            G
The poets and the Sages tried to warn us down the ages,
       Am
Their blood drips from the pages where they tell o' the Black Matilda.


[Verse]
        C                             G   
By the windy shores O' Canada bay I blew my friggin brains away
Am
It's not as tho' I'm proud to say, it's not as tho' I coulda killed her
      C                                G
I'm off to Hell's begotten shores where men like me have sailed before
     Am                                                   N.C.
And they shall sail forever more in the name o' the Black Matilda


[Chorus]
C                            G
Ho-Ro m'lovelies, cross yer hearts & hope to die,
      Am              
It's enough to make ye cry, enough to make ye cry,
C                            G
Ho-Ro m'lovelies, kiss yer arse a fond goodbye,
      Am
It's enough to make ye cry, enough to make ye cry,
C                            G
Ho-Ro m'lovelies, cross yer hearts & hope to die,
      Am
It's enough to make ye cry, enough to make ye cry,
C                            G
Ho-Ro m'lovelies, kiss yer arse a fond goodbye,
      Am
It's enough to make ye cry, enough to make ye cry,
     Am                                 (let ring)
Enough to make ye cry, enough to make ye cry,

Enough to make ye cry, enough to make ye cry,

Enough to make ye cry, enough to make ye die,