Sugar Trade

Word and Music by James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett and Timothy Mayer from James Taylor's 1981 album,
"Dad Loves His Work."
 
[Verse 1]
 
    C                 F         A#          C
Now back when this earth was a silver blue jewel
                    F            A#            C
And back when your grandfather's fathers were young
Am            D                G              C
Men of these shores made and gave up their lives
Am           D             G
Pulling up fish from the sea
 
[Verse 2]
 
      C                     A#/C
While down in the African slavery trade
C                     A#/C
Stealing young men to cut sugar cane
 C            A#         F/A    A#     C
Rum to New Bedford and codfish from Maine
                        A#           Ab    A#  C
They were building a wall that will always remain
 
[Verse 3]
 
                                  A#/C
Oh, the crown and the cross, the musket and the chain
     C                        A#/C
The white man's religion, the family name
       C            A#         F/A   A#     C
Two hundred years later and who is to blame?
                   A#             Ab                    A# C
The captain or the cargo or the juice of the sugar cane?
 
[Verse 4]
 
     C           F              A#            C
The doryman he knows when the riptides will run
                    F         A#           C
He sets out his nets and he waits in the sun
    Am            D              G           C
He thinks of his family and drinks of his rum
        Am               D          G
And he waits for the codfish to come
 
[Verse 5]
 
          C                          A#/C
It's the same goddamn ocean that keeps them alive
         C                        A#/C
It will swallow you up, it will let you survive
         C                A#          F/A   A# C
It will heal you and steal you and take you away
                    A#           Ab  A#  C
Like a note in a bottle with nothing to say
 
[Verse 6]
 
    C               F             A#         C
Now back when this earth was a silver blue jewel
                 F            A#            C
Back when your grandfather's fathers were young
 Am            D                 G             C
Men of these shores made and gave up their lives
 Am           D             G Dm/F  Cm/D#  F  C
Pulling up fish from the sea
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