Midnight Star

       C                    F
Let me tell you a story, it happened
 long ago
         C                         
When the pines were dancing in the 
            G7
wind on the Mendocino shore
    Am                             
The town lights were blazing, there
      Em
 were parties everywhere
F      C                 G      
It was Christmas eve and joy was
        C
 in the air


                             F
In the dark and stormy night someone
 heard the sound
   C                               
Of something breaking on the rocks 
      G7
and a big ship going down
Am                              
Some said they saw a light some 
Em
swore it was a star
     F                      C     
That shone out there in the night 
  G                C
although it wasn't far


In the grey light of morning they 
F
walked along the sand
        C                         
Finding pieces of the ship but no 
G7
sign of her hands
  Am                              
Except a tiny pair of shoes and a 
Em
woman's ragged coat
Continúa después del anuncio
     F                C           
That lay there at the water's edge
        G                 C
 in the driftwood and the foam


Some said she sailed from India or 
    F
the coast of Oregon
     C                             
Some said by the size of her 
         G7
rigging it was some place far beyond
    Am                        
But why she sailed into a port 
        Em
closed down so long ago
      F                 C         
Or if all on board were lost at 
  G                C
sea no one seemed to know


The fire was crackling in the stove 
        F
when he heard the wailing cry
     C                       
Of a little baby in the night 
 G7
somewhere close outside
   Am                              
He grabbed his gun and he left the 
          Em
house, he thought it was A cat
       F       C            G    
But he found a woman with a babe,
               C
 fallen in her tracks


She was cold, her eyes were glazed, 
    F
her skin was ghostly white
   C                               
He tried to make her speak, she 
  G7
just handed him the child
Am                          
And then she passed into that 
  Em
endless sleep
       F     C                 G 
And he knelt beside her on the 
                    C
trail and he began to weep


Rushing home he stoked the fire and 
   F
he bathed the weary babe
    C                              
Its skin was brown as a hazel nut, 
    G7
its eyes of greenest jade
   Am                            
In age it was about two years or 
Em
maybe six months more
       F                 C        
But he had the look of a wise old 
          G               C
man who'd been this way before


And so he stayed and he filled the 
             F
heart of the man that he called dad
    C                              
And Shipwreck Star was the only 
       G7
name that boy-child ever had
    Am                           
His mama, she lies buried in the 
Em
manzanita and the pines
          F            C          
Where the wild azaleas bloom in 
  G               C
the fog-bound summertime