The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19887   Message #205417
Posted By: GUEST,Victoria
01-Apr-00 - 09:28 PM
Thread Name: Lyr/Chords Req: The Arran Convict (Alan Reid)
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: THE ARRAN CONVICT (Alan Reid)
Ahhh...from the pen of the wonderful Alan Reid...great song, isn't it though? Here's the lyrics...

(Chorus:) I wish I was back on the Loch Ranza ferry
With long legged Mary, breathing the spray and the sweet island air of the morning
But I’m wasting away in this sweltering prison
The mercury's rising and freedom's a dream that arrives and escapes with the dawning.

It seems just like yesterday, sailing from Brodick
Across the Atlantic in search of a wife and some land
But the New Brunswick winters are lonely and hard
So I followed the wagons out west with no money or plan. (Chorus)

I worked on the railroad with Chinese and Irish
I slept in the pine woods and heard the wolf creep to the door
But a Scotsman in Portland took all of my money
He sold me a cartload of candles he robbed from a store.

I fell in with gangsters and dealers in moonshine
And soon they involved me in driving their wagons of booze
One night we were ambushed and I killed a black man
Now I’m in the jail-house and one of the hard labour crews. (Chorus)

Sometimes when it's dark I remember Loch Ranza
The days when the rain from Kintyre was a sheet without end
And long legged Mary, who smiled at me slyly
And if they release me I think I’ll go back there again. (Chorus)

The chords are as follows; G C G D Em A7 G D G C G D C G D G D A D G Em D C D A D G Em D C