Home From The Forest

Gordon Lightfoot

Key of C · Chords: I III IV V vi

Verse 1

C                                            F        C
Oh the neon lights were flashin' and the icy wind did blow
Am        G7                    F                         C
The water seeped into his shoes and the drizzle turned to snow
F                 C                           Am               E7
His eyes were red his hopes were dead and the wine was runnin' low
F               G7                   C
And the old man came home   from the forest

Verse 2

F                                                    C
His tears fell on the sidewalk as he stumbled in the street
Am            G7                   F                 C
A dozen faces stopped to stare but no one stopped to speak
F              C                     Am             E7
For his castle was a hallway and the bottle was his friend
F                        G7             C
And the old man stumbled in    from the forest

Verse 3

F                                                  C
Up a dark and dingy staircase the old man made his way
Am              G7         F                  C
His ragged coat around him as upon his cot he lay
F                   C                Am               E7
And he wondered how it happened that he ended up this way
F                 G7              C
Getting lost like a fool   in the forest

Verse 4

F                                         C
And as he lay there sleeping a vision did appear
Am              F                        C
Upon his mantle shining a face of one so dear
F                    C                 Am               E7
Who had loved him in the springtime of a long-forgotten year
F                    G7                  C
When the wildflowers did bloom    in the forest

Verse 5

F                                                          C
She touched his grizzled fingers and she called him by his name
Am          G7                     F                    C
And then he heard the joyful sound of children at their games
F                  C             Am             E7
In an old house on a hillside in some forgotten town
F               G7                   C
Where the river runs down   from the forest

Verse 6

F                                                     C
With a mighty roar the big jets soar above the canyon streets
Am              G7                           F          C
And the con men con but life goes on for the city never sleeps
F             C                 Am                    E7
And to an old forgotten soldier the dawn will come no more
F                   G7                   C
For the old man has come home   from the forest