E|---------|
B|-----0---|
G|-------0-|
D|---0-----|
A|--0------|
E|---------|
ie, A:
E|---------|
B|-----2---|
G|-------2-|
D|---2-----|
A|--0------|
E|---------|
A: X0222X (maybe easier if barred)
Bm'(?):X0443X
D: X0023X
G: X2003X
played with capo II
(sounding key, E)
ABm’ A
Take a trip with me in nineteen thirteen
DGA
To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country.
Bm’ A
I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall
DGA
Where the miners are having their big Christmas ball.
ABm’ A
I'll take you through a door, and up a high stairs.
DGA
Singing and dancing is heard everywhere,
Bm’ A
I will let you shake hands with the people you see
DGA
And watch the kids dance round that big Christmas tree.
Bm’ A
You ask about work and you ask about pay;
DGA
They'll tell you that they make less than a dollar a day,
Bm’ A
Working the copper claims, risking their lives,
DGA
So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives.
ABm’ A
There's talking and laughing and songs in the air,
DGA
And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere,
Bm’ A
Before you know it, you're friends with us all
DGA
And you're dancing around and around in the hall.
ABm’ A
Well, a little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights
DGA
To play the piano, so you gotta keep quiet.
Bm’ A
To hear all this fun you would not realize
DGA
That the copper-boss thug-men are milling outside.
ABm’ A
The copper-boss thugs stuck their heads in the door
DGA
One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire!"
Bm’ A
A lady, she hollered, "There's no such a thing!
DGA
Keep on with your party, there's no such a thing."
ABm’ A
A few people rushed, and it was only a few
DGA
"It's only the thugs and the scabs fooling you."
Bm’ A
A man grabbed his daughter and carried her down
DGA
But the thugs held the door and they could not get out.
ABm’ A
And then others followed, a hundred or more
DGA
But most everybody remained on the floor.
Bm’ A
The gun-thugs they laughed at their murderous joke,
DGA
While the children were smothered on the stair by the door.
ABm’ A
Such a terrible sight I never did see
DGA
We carried our children back up to their tree.
Bm’ A
The scabs outside still laughed at their spree
DGA
And the children that died there were seventy-three.
ABm’ A
The piano played a slow funeral tune
DGA
And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon,
Bm’ A
The parents they cried and the miners they moaned,
DGA
"See what your greed for money has done."