The Dalesmans Litany

INTRO:
F  C  Dm  Dm  Dm  Dm

VERSE
      Dm         C                     Dm
It's hard when folks can't find their work
                    C        Dm
Where they've been bred and born.

     Dm      C              Dm
When I was young I always thought
     Dm          C         Dm
I'd bide midst fruits and corn.


PD-C HORUS:
     F         Bb        Dm      C
But I've been forced to work in town
    Dm        F   A
So here's my litany:


CHORUS:
      Dm       C           Dm
From Hull and Halifax and Hell,
              C    Dm   Dm
Good Lord, deliver me!


VERSE:
     Dm     C             Dm
When I was courtin' Mary Jane,
           Dm        C      Dm
Thee old squire, he says to me:

      Dm       C               Dm
"I've got no rooms for wedded folk;
         Dm        C         Dm
Choose, whether to go or to stay?"


PD-C HORUS:
    F            Bb      Dm     C
I could not give up the girl I loved,
       Dm          F         A
So to town I was forced to flee:


CHORUS:
      Dm       C           Dm
From Hull and Halifax and Hell,
              C    Dm  Dm  Dm
Good Lord, deliver me!


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VERSE:
      Dm         C               Dm
I've worked in Leeds an' Huddersfield
                  C      Dm
I've earned some honest brass;

    Dm        C              Dm
In Bradford, Keighley, Rotherham,
              C         Dm
I've kept me barns an' lass.


PD-C HORUS:
       F       Bb         Dm       C
I've travelled all three Ridin's round,
     Dm     F       A
And once I went to sea:


CHORUS:
      Dm      C                  Dm
From forges, mills, and coalin' boats,
              C    Dm   Dm
Good Lord, deliver me!


VERSE:
      Dm        C                       Dm
I've walked at night through Sheffield lanes
      Dm        C        Dm
Twas just like bein' in Hell:

       Dm        C                    Dm
Where furnaces thrust out tongues o' fire,
     Dm              C           Dm
An' roared like the wind on the fell.


PD-C HORUS:
      F          Bb      Dm       C
I've sammed up coals in Barnsley pit
      Dm     F      A
With muck up to my knee:


CHORUS:
      Dm         C             Dm
From Barnsley, Sheffield, Rotherham,
              C    Dm  Dm
Good Lord, deliver me!


VERSE:
      Dm        C                 Dm
I've seen fog creep across Leeds Bridge
                 C       Dm
As thick as the bastile soup;

      Dm           C                Dm
I've lived where folks were stowed away
      Dm     C     Dm
Like rabbits in a coop.


PD-C HORUS:
      F          Bb        Dm        C
I've seen snow float down Bradforth Beck
    Dm       F  A
As black as ebony:


CHORUS:
      Dm       C               Dm
Frae Hunslet, Holbeck, Wibsey Stack,
              C    Dm  Dm
Good Lord, deliver me!


VERSE:
    Dm           C                    Dm
But now, that's all our children are gone
                C          Dm
To the country we've come back.

         Dm    C                Dm
There's forty mile of heathery moor
       Dm          C        Dm
Twixt' us and the coal-pit stack.


PD-C HORUS:
    F     Bb         Dm       C
And as I sit by the fire at night,
      Dm         F         A
I'll laugh and shout with glee:


CHORUS:
      Dm        C            Dm
From Hull, and Halifax, and Hell,
                 C      Dm
The good Lord delivered me!