D
He had a blue wing tattooed on his shoulder
D                                            Em
Well, it might have been a bluebird, I don't know
Em
but he'd get stone drunk and talk about Alaska
A                               D
and the salmon boats and 45 below

D
well he got that blue wing in jail at Walla Walla
D                                        Em
and his cellmate there was Little Willie John
Em
Willie, he was once a great blues singer
A                                  D
so Wing & Willie wrote 'em up a song

[Chorus]
N.C.               D                   G
said, it's dark in here, can't see the sky
      D                                     A
but I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes
          D                  G
and I fly away, beyond these walls
             D                            A
up above the clouds, where the rain don't fall
                D    G A
on a poor man's dreams

[Verse 2]
D
well they paroled blue wing in August of 1963
D                                         Em
and he moved north picking apples to the town of Wenatchee
Em
winter finally caught him in a rundown trailer park
A                                      D
on the south side of Seattle where the days grow grey and dark

D
and he drank and he dreamt a vision of when the salmon still ran free
D                                      Em
and his father's fathers crossed that wide old Bering sea
Em
and the land belonged to everyone, and there were old songs yet to sing
A                                                     D
now, it's narrowed broken down to a cheap hotel and a tattooed prison wing

[Chorus]
N.C.               D                   G
said, it's dark in here, can't see the sky
      D                                     A
but I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes
          D                  G
and I fly away, beyond these walls
             D                            A
up above the clouds, where the rain don't fall
                D    G A
on a poor man's dreams

[Verse 3]
D
well he drank his way to A  and that's where he died
D                                                 Em
and no one knew his Christian name, and there was no one there to cry
Em
but I dreamt that there was a service, a preacher and an old pine box
A                                D
and halfway through the service, blue wing began to talk

[Chorus]
N.C.               D                   G
he said, it's dark in here, can't see the sky
      D                                     A
but I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes
          D                  G
and I fly away, beyond these walls
             D                            A
up above the clouds, where the rain don't fall
                D    G A
on a poor man's dreams