Northwest Passage chords
In case any other due South fans are feeling singalong-y this holiday season, I thought I'd post the chords to Stan Rogers's "Northwest Passage"--easy to play on the piano, and (probably) the guitar as well. I got these out of Rise Up Singing, which is an excellent songbook, not least for the hippy-dippy multi-racial seventies illustrations.
Chorus:
Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
D A G Bm
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
G D Em G
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
D A G Bm
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
G DA D D
Verses:
Westward from the Davis Straight 'tis there 'twas said to lie
G D DA G
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died
G D DA G
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered broken bones
G D DA G
And a long forgotten lonely cairn of stones
G DA Bm Bm
Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking West
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson, and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea
How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them I left a settled life, I threw it all away
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again
Happy holidays all!
Chorus:
Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
D A G Bm
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
G D Em G
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
D A G Bm
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
G DA D D
Verses:
Westward from the Davis Straight 'tis there 'twas said to lie
G D DA G
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died
G D DA G
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered broken bones
G D DA G
And a long forgotten lonely cairn of stones
G DA Bm Bm
Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking West
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson, and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea
How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them I left a settled life, I threw it all away
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again
Happy holidays all!