Iron Mike Cifras

[Verse]
     C
On a starry black night
       F
At the base of Mount Hogen
    Am
Beyond Horsetail Creek
    F
And Anderson Bay
         C
From the port of Valdez
         F
Sailed a ship bound for Long Beach
     Am                     G
Over one million barrels of crude stowed away
 
       C
To the left of the wheel
       F
In the bridge on the upper deck
Am                    F
Under the compass was he
    C
Navigation computer
    F                       Am
The captain and fisherman's friend
                       F
Who could steer perfectly
 
[Chorus]
                Ab
They called him Iron Mike
       Gm          F
In the dead of the night
    Ab                         Bbsus4 Bb
He steered the way through the darkness
Ab                Gm          F            Csus4
Iron Mike, didn’t see the red light on the reef
 
[Verse]
        C                        F
Now the skipper had twenty years sailing with Exxon
          Am                         F
He'd been known to throw back one or two
    C                            F
Yet no one thought twice when he set auto-pilot
       Am                   G
And retired below with the crew
 
         C
From the two AM stillness
         F
Came the cry of the third mate
        Am                    F
Someone better go wake up the chief
       C
Yet by then, it was too late
    F                               Am                F
The starboard tanks had twelve-foot gashes cut out by Bligh Reef
 
[Chorus]
Ab
Iron Mike
       Gm          F
In the dead of the night
   Ab                          Bbsus4 Bb
He steered the way through the darkness
Ab                Gm          F            Csus4
Iron Mike, didn't see the red light on the reef, on the reef
 
[Verse]
       C                          F
The forget-me-knots cried and the salmon all died
        Am                      F
And the fishermen wore black armbands
        C
And the spokesmen from Exxon
     F
Said no major damage
       Am                     G
Though six million gallons remain in the sands
 
         C
And from Rocky Point down
         F                        Am
To Mount Freemantle you can still see
                      F
The black film on the soil
        C
And the echos rebound
           F
Throughout Prince William Sound
       Am                  F
Of the half-frozen animals choking in oil
 
[Chorus]
Ab
Iron Mike
       Gm          F
In the dead of the night
   Ab                          Bbsus4 Bb
He steered the way through the darkness
Ab                Gm          F            Csus4
Iron Mike, didn’t see the red light on the reef
 
[Bridge]
C                    Gm           F
Who's at the helm of this ship of stayed
      Ab                    Bbsus4 Bb
We're in for some rough navigation
   F
We have the power, The hour is late
      Ab                           Csus4 G
Gotta get tough and clean up the nation
 
[Verse]
       C
On the first of the year
         F
South of Governor's Island
       Am                     F
In the waterway called Arthur Kill
      C
Black Rainbows of Exxon
     F                            Am
Like Grayed again flowed like hot fudge
               G
In a big Apple spill
 
      C                      F
The detection machine had malfunctioned quite often
Am                   F
Repair procedures so hard to enforce
    C
And down on Paul's Island
     F                     Am
The cleanup begins and the horror continues
        F
Till we chart our own course
 
[Chorus]
Ab
Iron Mike
         Gm          F
It's the dead of the night
       Ab                         Bbsus4 Bb
We can steer a new way through the darkness
Ab                 Gm      F         Csus4
Iron Mike, we must see the light for relief, for relief, for relief, for relief
X