Lyrics and music: Stan Rogers
Album: Northwest Passage
1981
[Intro]
G C D
[Verse 1]
G C
Well it's blackfish at play in Hermitage Bay
D G C D
From Pushthrough across to Bois Island
G C
They broach and they sprout and they lift their flukes out
Am D
And they wave to a town that is dying
Em C
Now it's many's the boats that have plied on the foam
Am C D
Hauling away, hauling away!
G G7 C Am
But there's many more fellows been leaving their homes
D G C D
Where the whales make free in the harbour
[Verse 2]
G C
It's at Portage and Main, you'll see them again
D G C D
On their way to the hills of Alberta
G C
With lop-sided grins, they waggle their chins
Am D
And they brag of the wage they'll be earning
Em C
Then it's, "Quick, pull the string boys, and get the tool out
Am C D
Haul it away! Haul it away!"
G G7 C Am
But just two years ago, you could hear the same shout
D G
Where the whales make free in the harbour
[Chorus]
Am D
Free in the harbour
C G
The blackfish are sporting again
Em C
Free in the harbour
Am C/B C D
Untroubled by comings and goings of men
G G7
Who once did pursue them as oil from the sea
C A7
Hauling away, hauling away!
G Am
Now they're Calgary roughnecks from Hermitage Bay
D G
Where the whales make free in the harbour
[Instrumental]
G C D
[Verse 3]
G C
Well, it's a living they've found, deep in the ground
D G C D
And if there's doubts, it's best they ignore them
G C
Nor think on the bones, the crosses and stones
Am D
Of their fathers that came there before them
Em C
In the taverns of Edmonton, fishermen shout
Am C D
"Haul it away! Haul it away!"
G G7 C Am
They left three hundred years buried up on the Bay
D G
Where the whales make free in the harbour
[Chorus]
Am D
Free in the harbour
C G
The blackfish are sporting again
Em C
Free in the harbour
Am C/B C D
Untroubled by comings and goings of men
G G7
Who once did pursue them as oil from the sea
C A7
Hauling away, hauling away!
G Am
Now they're Calgary roughnecks from Hermitage Bay
D G
Where the whales make free in the harbour
[Coda]
Am D G
Free in the harbour... again
G C D
