The Hot Asphalt chords by Luke Kelly

SimplifiedEm · D · G

GuitarPianoUkulele

Verse 1
Em 
Good evening, all my jolly lads,
I'm glad to find you well
D 
Em 
If you'll gather all around
D 
me, now, the story I will tell
Em 
For I've got a situation
and begorrah and begob
I can whisper all the weekly
wage of nineteen bob
G 
'Tis twelve months come

Verse 2
October
since I left me native home
After helping them Killarney boys
D 
to bring the harvest down
Em 
But now I wear the gansey
and around me waist a belt
D 
Em 
I'm the gaffer of the squad
that makes the hot asphalt

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Verse 3

Well, we laid it in a hollows

and we laid it in the flat

And if it doesn't last forever,

sure I swear, I'll eat me hat

Well, I've wandered up and down

the world and sure I never felt

Any surface that was equal

to the hot asphalt

Verse 4
Em 
The other night a copper comes and he says to me,
McGuire
Would you kindly let me light me
D 
pipe down at your boiler fire?
Em 
And he planks himself right down
in front, with hobnails up, till late
And says I, me decent man,
you'd better go and find your bait
G 
He ups and yells,

Verse 5
I'm down on you,
I'm up to all yer pranks
Don't I know you for a traitor
D 
from the Tipperary ranks?
Em 
Boys, I hit straight from the shoulder
and I gave him such a belt
That I knocked him into the
boiler full of hot asphalt

Verse 6
G 
Well, we laid it in a hollows
and we laid it in the flat
And if it doesn't last forever,
D 
sure I swear, I'll eat me hat
Em 
Well, I've wandered up and down the
D 
world and sure I never felt
Em 
Any surface that was equal
to the hot asphalt

Verse 7
Em 
We quickly dragged him out again and we
G 
threw him in the tub
Em 
And with soap and warm water
D 
we began to rub and scrub
Em 
But devil the thing,
D 
it hardened and it turned him hard as stone
Em 
And with every other rub, sure you
could hear the copper groan
G 
I'm thinking, says

Verse 8
O'Reilly,
that he's lookin' like old Nick
And burn me if I am not inclined to
D 
claim him with me pick
Em 
Now, says I, it would be easier
to boil him till he melts
D 
Em 
And to stir him nice and easy
in the hot asphalt

Verse 9
G 
Well, we laid it in a hollows
and we laid it in the flat
And if it doesn't last forever,
D 
sure I swear, I'll eat me hat
Em 
Well, I've wandered up and down
D 
the world and sure I never felt
Em 
Any surface that was equal
to the hot asphalt

Verse 10
Em 
You may talk about yer sailor lads, ballad
D 
singers and the rest
Em 
Your shoemakers and your tailors
D 
but we please the ladies best
Em 
The only ones who know
the way their flinty hearts to melt
D 
Em 
Are the lads around the boiler
making hot asphalt
G 
With rubbing and

Verse 11
with scrubbing,
sure I caught me death of cold
D 
For scientific purposes, me body it was sold
Em 
In the Kelvin grove museum, me boys,
I'm hangin' in me pelt
As a monument to the Irish,
making hot asphalt

Verse 12
G 
Well, we laid it in a hollows
and we laid it in the flat
And if it doesn't last forever,
D 
sure I swear, I'll eat me hat
Em 
Well, I've wandered up and down
the world and sure I never felt
D 
Em 
Any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt