NOTE: The chords below represent the true chords for this song, however for guitar players, a nice trick (that Harry used) is to play the first 3 verses with a CAPO on the FIRST fret, the second verse with the CAPO on the SECOND fret and the third verse with the CAPO on the THIRD fret and then to transpose the whole song to the key of E. If you choose to use this trick, please keep in mind that you'll have to physically move the capo at the points labelled key mod 1 and key mod 2.

F - FaddB (2x's)

        F
It was just after dark


When the truck started down

     Bb                   Bbm            F
The hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania

           Eb     Bb       Cm         F
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas

           Eb     Bb       Cm         F
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas


           F
He was a young driver

  Bb              Bbm
Just out on his second job

             F
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits

     C/G
For everyone in that coal-scarred city

       F
Where children play without despair

    Bb
In backyard slag piles

Bbm                 F
And folks manage to eat each day 

        Eb     Bb       Cm         F
About thirty thousand pounds of bananas

                 Eb     Bb       Cm         F
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds of bananas


    F
He passed a sign that he should have seen

        Bb                   Bbm         F
Saying shift to low gear or fifty dollar fine, my friend

        C/G
He was thinking perhaps about the warm breath woman 

         F
Who was waiting at the journey's end

    Bb               Bbm
He started down the two-mile drop,

     G                                          C/G
The curving road that wound from the top of the hill


He was pushing on through the short'ning miles 

     F                F7
That ran down to the depot;


Just a few more miles to go

     Bb                        Bbm        F
Then he'd go home and have her ease his long cramped day away

                  Eb     Bb       Cm         F
And the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas
     
                   Eb     Bb       Cm         F    -> F# (key mod 1)
Yes, the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas


        F#                                      B           Bm   F#
He was picking up speed as the city speard its twinkling lights below him

                             F#7                     B        Bm               F#
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the night's delights went through him

     C#/G#
His foot nursed the brake to slow him down, but the pedal floored easy without a sound

           F#
He said, "Christ!"

                                                     C#/G#
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now

                                       F#
He was trappped inside a deadend hell slide

              F#7                    B            Bm           F#
Riding on his fear hunched back was every one of those yellow green

                  E        B      C#m        F#m
I'm telling you, thirty thousand pounds of bananas

                  E        B      C#m        F#m  -> G (key mod 2)
Yes there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas.


                             G7         C   Cm         G
He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade

                                          C     Cm       G
And he missed a thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour

                 Dm            Bb   F              G
"God, make it a dream," as he rode his last ride down

                          Dm           Bb   F             G
He said, "God, make it a dream" as he rode his last ride down

       Cm
And he side-swiped nineteen neat-parked cars,

   G
Clipped off thirteen telephone poles

Cm
Hit two houses, bruised eight trees and 

 G
Blue-Crossed seven people.

        Dm
It was then he lost his head

                                         G
Not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.

        Dm
And he smeared for four hundred yards

                                                G
Along the hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania, 

           F       Am7     Dm          G
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas


             G                G7
You know the man who told me about it on the bus 

      C                        Cm             G
As it went up the hill our of Scranton, Pennsylvania

    Dm                                               G
He shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head, and he said


And this is exactly what he said:


"Boy, it sure must have been something.


Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas"

                F        Am7    Dm                 G
Yes there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas


Of bananas, thirty thousand pounds, 

 Ab                            A                   Bb
Of bananas, of bananas, thirty thousand pounds of bananas....


B - C - C# - D - D# - E - (up the scale)