Moreton Bay Chords
by John Denver
Moreton Bay by John Denver is a moderately challenging guitar song played in the key of E. It uses the chords E, A, C#m, B and Fm. Use the transpose and diagram tools on this page to change the key, see each shape, or simplify the chords.
Verse
E A
One Sunday morning as I went walking
E C#m B E
By Brisbane Waters I chanced to stray
E A
I heard a convict his fate bewailing
E
As on the sunny riverbank he lay
E A
I am a native of Erin's Ireland
E C#m
But banished now from my native shore
E A
They stole me from my aged parents
E
And from the maiden whom I do adore
E A
I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie
E Fm
At Norfolk Island and Emu Plains
E A
At Castle Hill and the cursed Toongabbie
E
At all these settlements I've been in chains
E A
But of all places of condemnation
E C#m B E
And penal stations in New South Wales
E A
To Moreton Bay I have found no equal
E
Excessive tyranny each day prevails
E A
For three long years I was beastly treated
E C#m B E
And heavy irons on my legs I wore
E A
My back from flogging was lacerated
E
And oft times painted with my crimson gore
E A
And many a man from downright starvation
E C#m B E
Lies mouldering now underneath the clay
E A
And Captain Logan he had us mangled
E
All On the triangles of Moreton Bay
E A
Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews
E C#m B E
We were oppressed under Logan's yoke
E A
Till a native black lying there in ambush
E
Did deal this tyrant with his mortal stroke
E A
My fellow prisoners be exhilarated
E C#m B E
That all such monsters like death may find
E A
And when from bondage we're liberated
E
Our former suffering soon will fade from mind