Carnations On The Roof

    G                          F                    C
He worked setting tools for a multi-purpose punch
                               D     G
In a shop that made holes in steel plates
                                       F
He could hear himself think through a fifty minute lunch
        C                           Em7
Of the kids, gas and stoppages, the upkeep and the rates
          Cm7                       Dm7             G
While he talked about Everton and Chelsea with his mates


      G                          F                    C
With gauge and micrometer, with level and with rule
                                    D       G
While chuck and punch were pulsing like a drum
     G                                  F
He checked the finished product like a master after school
      C                              Em7
The slugs looked like money and the cutting-oil like scum
        Cm7                           Dm7              G
And to talk with a machinist he made signals like the dumb


                  D                      F
   Though he had no great gifts of personality or mind
           C                  D          G
   He was generally respected, and the proof
          D                              F
   Was a line of hired Humbers tagging quietly behind
      C           Em7          Cm7
   A fat Austin Princess with carnations on the roof


 G                            F                   C
Forty years of metal tend to get into your skin
                                D        G
The surest coin you take home from your wage
      G                        F
The green cleaning-jelly only goes to rub it in
           C                              Em7
And that glitter in the wrinkle of your knuckle shows your age
   Cm7                     Dm7                G
Began when the dignity of work was still the rage


       G                        F                   C
He was used and discarded in a game he didn't own
                               D    G
But when the moment of destruction came
     G                           F
He showed that a working man is more than flesh and bone
     C                               Em7
The hands on his chest flared more brightly than his name
       Cm7                      Dm7              G
For a technicolor second as he rolled into the flame


                  D                      F
   Though he had no great gifts of personality or mind
           C                  D          G
   He was generally respected, and the proof
          D                              F
   Was a line of hired Humbers tagging quietly behind
      C           Em7          Cm7
   A fat Austin Princess with carnations on the roof

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