Summer Wages

Doyle Lawson

Written by Ian Tyson

Key of G · Chords: I IV V ii

Verse 1

Summer Wages
Recorded J.D. Crowe

Verse 2

G                            C
Never hit seventeen when you play against the dealer
        G             Am                   D7
For you know that the odds won't ride with you
    G
And never leave your woman alone
          C
When your friends are out to steal her
         G          Am               D7 G
Here's a gamble and lost like summer wa-ges

Verse 3

                                  C
And we'll keep rollin' on till we get to Vancouver
        G            Am             D7
And the woman that I love is living there
         G                   C
Its been six long months and more since I've seen her
           G           Am               D7 G
She may be gambled and gone like summer wa-ges

Verse 4

    D7                       C          G
And all the beer taverns all down along Young Street
                  G7             C                   G
The dreams of the season are all spilled down on the floor
        D7                        C           G
All the big stands of timber just waitin' for fallin'
                         G7                 C                 D7
And the hustlers sit and watchfully as they wait there by the door

Verse 5

G                                C
So I'll work on them towboats in my slippery city shoes
        G             Am        D7
Which I swore I would never do again
            G
Through the gray fog bound straights
          C
Where the cedars stand watchin'
            G       Am               D7 G
I'll be far off and gone like summer wa-ges

Verse 6

                            C
She's a woman so fine I may never try to find her
         G            Am          D7
For good memories are what we had before
     G
They should never be changed
            C
For they're all that I'll take with me
         G           Am             D7 G
Now I've gambled and lost my summer wa-ges

Verse 7

C         G           Am               D7 G
Years are gambled and lost like summer wa-ges