C

[Verse 1]
               Dm
Alkali, here's mud in your eye
            F                  G                    C     Dm  G
You've been lost in the desert twenty-five years or more
         C                        Dm
All your whiskey streams and your goldfield dreams 
      F               G                C 
Well, Lady Luck won't let you dark her door


[Verse 2]
         Am               Em
And they tell me you're a ghost of a man
F         G          C
Lord, I believe it's true
         Am            Em
And they say you had a woman once
        D                  G
But she turned her back on you


[Chorus]
        Dm
You old gold mining hobo
F         G           C
Dry-well, desert rat, Alkali
 

[Verse 3]
        Dm
Put the bacon on to fry
          F                       G                      C      Dm  G
Well, the sun's coming up and the mule's waiting for his grain
       C                          Dm
Just a one room shack, out by the Santa Fe tracks
        F                        G                       C 
It’s an old lick of earth that's screaming for a drop of rain


[Verse 4]
              Am                  Em
And there's a time for work and a time for play
      F        G     C
And a time for lying down
        Am                     Em
And the road might lead to the rainbow's end
  D                G
A dusty old desert town


[Chorus]
        Dm
You old gold mining hobo
F         G           C
Dry-well, desert rat, Alkali


[Instrumental]
Dm    F  G  C  Dm G

[Verse 5]
C                 Dm
Alkali, there's a buzzard in the sky
           F                         G                      C      Dm  G
And he’s a-counting his chances on a-picking your skinflint bones  
    C                           Dm
Ah, raise your hand and throw a curse on the land
              F                 G                        C 
They're gonna find you one day, lying 'neath an unmarked stone
 

[Verse 6]
          Am          Em
Well, the desert is a lonely place
      F      G        C
For a man to lose his head
     Am                        Em
They tell me when you start to talking to yourself
D                          G
Lord, you might as well be dead


[Chorus]
        Dm
You old gold mining hobo
F         G           C
Dry-well, desert rat, Alkali


[Chorus]
Am      Em
Alkali, Alkali
        F                  
You old gold-mining hobo
G                     C
Dry-well, desert rat, Alkali


[Chorus]
Am      Em
Alkali, Alkali
        F                  
You old gold-mining hobo
G                     C
Dry-well, desert rat, Alkali