Telegraph Road Tab by Dire Straits

Telegraph Road tab by Dire Straits

Guitar Tab

Tuning: Standard EBGDAE

Difficulty: advanced

TELEGRAPH ROAD

At 1:48
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--------|---|---|-----0------8---7>10---|----|---------|------------|-----|
----5-2-|---|---|-0-0-0-4>7----7--------|-10-|-9-7^9^7-|-5^7-7~(10)-|-7---|
--x-----|---|---|-0-0-------------------|----|---------|------------|-----|
-x------|---|---|-----------------------|----|---------|------------|-----|
--------|---|---|-----------------------|----|---------|------------|-----|

  F                    Dm
A long time ago came a man on a track
C                           Bb                 F
walking thirty miles with a sack on his back
       Bb                C        F                      C7
and he put down his load where he thought it was the best
Bb                        Gm7          Bb
he made a home in the wilderness
F          Dm
he built a cabin and a winter store
       C                      Am     Bb              F
and he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
Bb            C               F               C
and the other travellers came riding down the track
         Bb                 F/A      Gm7                 Bb
and they never went further and they never went back
F                      Dm
then came the churches then came the schools
C                     Bb                  F
then came the lawyers then came the rules
Bb            Csus4      C   F                 C
then came the trains and the trucks with their loads
        Bb             Bb                        Dm
and the dirty old track   was the telegraph road

🎸

Accuracy Rating: - Votes: -

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F                     Dm
Then came the mines - then came the ore
C                             Bb             Bb  F
then there was the hard times then there was a   war
Bb               C     F                 C7
telegraph sang a song about the world outside
Bb                    Gm7
telegraph road got so deep and so wide
Bb             F
like a rolling river. . .

At 4:07
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D    D7/F#  G
     And my radio says tonight it`s gonna freeze
Dm
people driving home from the factories
        C
there`s six lanes of traffic
Am                      Dm
     three lanes moving slow. . .

At 5:49
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C            F                           Dm
   I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
              C                                  Bb
   I`ve got a right to go to work but there`s no work here to be found
   F            Bb                   C      F          C7
   yes and they say we`re gonna have to pay what`s owed
         Bb                      Gm7
   we`re gonna have to reap from seed that`s been sowed
Bb         F                             Dm
   and the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles
            C                              Bb
   they can always fly away from this rain and this cold
                     C7                F
   you can here them singing out their telegraph code
   C        Bb                        Dm
   all the way down the telegraph road

At 7:52
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C               F                     Dm
   You know I`d sooner forget but I remember those nights
        C                             Bb
   when life was just a bet on a race between the lights
   F            Bb              C   F            C7
   you had your head on my shoulder you had your hand in my hair
       Bb                               Gm7
   now you act a little colder like you don`t seem to care
Bb       F                         Dm
   but believe in me baby and I`ll take you away
        C                        Bb
   from out of this darkness and into the day
                        C                F             C
   from these rivers of headlights these rivers of rain
F/A         Bb                  C7  F                  C
   from the anger that lives on the streets with these names
F/A     Bb                       C7 F          F/A
   `cos I`ve run every red light on memory lane
        Bb               C7 F         C      F/A
   I`ve seen desperation explode into flames
Bb             C7      F       C
   and I don`t want to see it again. . .

        Am                        Dm
   From all of these signs saying sorry but we`re closed
           Bb
   all the way

At 9:32
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-------------------------|---------------------------
-------------------------|---------------------------  Fade out
-------------------------|---------------------------
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Last updated: September 10, 2025

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