Intro: Em7
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It's all there in the gospels, the Magdalene girl
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Comes to pay her respects, but her mind is awhirl
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When she finds the tomb empty, the stone had been rolled,
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Not a sign of a corpse in the dark and the cold.
C
When she reaches the door, sees an unholy sight,
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There's this solitary figure in a halo of light
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He just carries on floating past Calvary Hill,
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In an almighty hurry, aye but she might catch him still.
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"Tell me where are ye going Lord, and why in such haste?"
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"Now don't hinder me woman, I've no time to waste!"
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For they're launching a boat on the morrow at noon,
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And I have to be there before daybreak.
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Oh I canna be missing, the lads'll expect me,
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Why else would the good Lord himself resurrect me?
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For nothing will stop me, I have to prevail,
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Through the teeth of this tempest, in the mouth of a gale.
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May the angels protect me, if all else should fail,
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When the last ship sails.
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Oh the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers,
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The noise at the end of the world in your ears,
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As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea,
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And the last ship sails.
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It's a strange kind of beauty,
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It's cold and austere,
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And whatever it was that ye've done to be here,
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It's the sum of yr hopes yr despairs and yr fears,
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When the last ship sails.
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Well the first to arrive saw these signs in the east,
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Like that strange moving finger at Balthazar's Feast,
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Where they asked the advice of some wandering priest,
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And the sad ghosts of men whom they'd thought long deceased,
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And whatever got said, they'd be counted at least,
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When the last ship sails.
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Oh the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers,
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The noise at the end of the world in your ears,
D Bm7 C#m7
As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea,
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And the last ship sails.
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And whatever you'd promised, whatever you've done,
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And whatever the station in life you've become
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In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son,
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And whatever the weave of this life that you've spun,
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On the Earth or in Heaven or under the Sun,
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When the last ship sails.