The Highwayman chords by Loreena Mckennitt
Guitar chords with lyrics
Capo on 3rd (how I play it)
Intro: Am Am7 C G Am
Strumming pattern for intro: Am || Am7 | C ||| G ||| Am |||
Verse:
Am C G Am
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
Am C G Am
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon the cloudy seas
Dm G C G
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
Dm G C
And the highwayman came riding,
G
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Accuracy Rating: - Votes: -
Riding, riding,
Am C G Dm
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
Am C G Am
He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
Am C G Am
A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
Dm G C G
They fitted with nary a wrinkle; his boots were up to the thigh
Dm G C
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
G
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
Am C G Dm
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
Am C G Am
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark innyard,
Am C G Am
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
Dm G C G
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there?
Dm G C
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
G
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Am C G Dm
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
Am C G Am
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
Am C G Am
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Dm G C G
Yet if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Dm G C
Then look for me by the moonlight,
G
Watch for me by the moonlight,
Am C G Dm
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way.
Am C G Am
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand
Am C G Am
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
Dm G C G
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
Dm G C
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
G
(Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight!)
Am C G Dm
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.
INTRO X2
Am C G Am
He did not come at the dawning; he did not come at noon,
Am C G Am
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
Dm G C G
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
Dm G C
A red-coat troop came marching,
G
Marching, marching
Am C G Dm
King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
Am C G
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
Am C G
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed
Dm G C G
Two of them knelt at the casement, with muskets at their side!
Dm G C
There was death at every window
G
And hell at one dark window;
Am C G
For Bess could see, through the casement,
Dm
The road that he would ride.
Am C G Am
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
Am C G Am
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
Dm G C
"now keep good watch!" And they kissed her.
G
She heard the dead man say
Dm G C
"Look for me by the moonlight
G
Watch for me by the moonlight
Am C G Dm
I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though hell should bar the way!"
Am C G Am
She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good!
Am C G Am
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
Dm G C G
They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years!
Dm G C
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
G
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
Am C G
The tip of one finger touched it!
Dm
The trigger at least was hers!
INTRO X2
Am C G Am
Totelot-totelot! Had they heard it? The horse's hooves rang clear
Am C G Am
Totelot-totelot, in the distance! Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Dm G C G
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
Dm G C
The highwayman came riding,
G
Riding, riding!
Am C G
The red-coats looked to their priming!
Dm
She stood up straight and still!
Am C G Am
Totelot in the frosty silence! Totelot, in the echoing night!
Am C G Am
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Dm G C G
Her eyes grew wide for a moment! She drew one last deep breath,
Dm G C
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
G
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Am C G Dm
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death.
INTRO x2
Am C G Am
He turned; he spurred to the west; he did not know she stood
Am C G Am
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Dm G C G
Not till the dawn he heard it; his face grew grey to hear
Dm G C
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
G
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Am C G Am
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
Am C G Am
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky
Am C G Am
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Dm G C G
Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
Dm G C
When they shot him down on the highway,
G
Down like a dog on the highway,
Am C G Dm
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
INTRO X4
Am C G Am
Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
Am C G Am
When the moon is a ghostly galleon, tossed upon the cloudy seas,
Dm G C G
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
Dm G C
A highwayman comes riding,
G
Riding, riding,
Am C G Dm
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
INTRO X4
The Highwayman chords