The Drovers Ballad

The Drover's Ballad
Baz Luhrmann / Elton John
from the Australia OST (2008)

D - G  x8

          D                                    G
From the sunburnt plains of far off North Australia
        D                                 A
Came a fella born to ride the wide brown land
       Em
Oh he grew up running wild
     Bm               G
But soon by all was styled
         D                              A
As the country's greatest-ever droving man

        D                                    G
Oh his legend rode the winds from Broome to Darwin
      D                                      A
They loved and loathed him right from end to end
              Em
For when the drover gave his heart
      Bm                  G
To a girl whose skin was dark
       D             A                   D
From that day on he was no white man's friend

    G                               Bm
So goes The Drover's story, you'll hear it near and far
            G                       D
And in the end it's all he'll ever own
             Bm
It says the outcast is a free man
        F#m
If he sleeps under the stars
             C             Em                A
Makes the blanket of the southern skies his home

           D                                G
Then they called him up to fight for Mother England
      D                                       A
In a far off war that spilled his brother's blood
  Em
Inside the jaws of Hell
       Bm                G
Where both his brothers fell
         D                                   A
He just watched his faith in man die in the mud

       D                              G
There was no hero's welcome for The Drover
         D                                  A
Just a country that had turned its back on him
         Em
When he came home from the war
     Bm                        G
His sick wife, they would not cure
      D                    A              D
They let her die, for the colour of her skin

repeat chorus

F - C/E - G/D - Eb - Bb/D - F     x2
G - A - A7

      D                           G
The Drover is a man of constant shadows
  D                                A
Haunted by his pain, his past and name
     Em
For every mile he rides
 Bm             G
What he cannot hide
        D               A             D
Is the longing in his heart to love again


(repeat chorus)
             C             Em                A
Makes the blanket of the southern skies his home
G    D            G - D
His home