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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Wolf Lahti Lyr ADD: The Renegade (Ian Tyson) (50) Lyr/Chords Add: THE RENEGADE (Ian & Sylvia) 16 Sep 18


The words I got from one of the Ian and Sylvia music books so they are accurate. The chords I believe are a whole tone below the recording.


C         G7       Am             G
Up on the hillside, policemen were climbing;
Am                   F                C             G
the ghosts called the night wind their fantasies to tell.
C            G7            Am            G
Dark on the snow were the blood drops a-dryin’;
Am                   F            C             G
slipped through cold fingers, the whiskey bottle fell.


C          F         C                   F
Klahowya, mother, I leave you with your white man;
D                      G             D                G
I curse their church that tells us that our fathers were wrong.
         C          G                Am          G
And I’ll hunt my own mowich, and I’ll drink my own whiskey,
         Am         F          C             G
and I’ll sing until morning the old-fashioned songs.

Fires of the potlatch are all scattered in their ashes;
Mesachie tamanawas - The Evil One’s remains.
And our children cannot follow the old nor the new ways,
and the poles of their fathers are rotting in the rain

Daylight came late over high coastal mountains;
the renegade stood watching with his rifle by his side.
Then he emptied his gun up into the pale, yellow sunrise,
and he ran down the hillside to the place where he died.



klahowya = hello, goodbye
mesachie = evil, malign
mowich = deer
potlatch = an annual regional gathering where stories and gifts are exchanged
tamanawas = spirit, sorcerer


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