Intro:

|     C     |     C     |     C     |     C     |

G

       I discovered the valley of the shifting, whispering sands

While prospecting in a western state.

                                          C

I saw the silent windmills, the crumbling water tanks,

The bones of the cattle picked clean by buzzards, bleached by the desert sun.

                   G

I stumbled over a crumbling buckboard nearly covered by the sand.

And stopping to rest, I heard a tinkling, whispering sound,

        C                                                     F

And suddenly realized that even though the wind was quiet,

                                         C

The sand did not lie still.

I seemed to be surrounded by a mystery

                                       D7

So heavy and oppresive      I could scarcely breathe.

                                                       G

For weeks I wandered aimlessly       in the valley,

                                                                                                             C

Seeking answers to the many questions that raced through my mind.

Where was ev'ryone? Why the white bones, the dry wells,

G

     The baron valley where the people must have lived and died?

I sat down and buried my face in my hands.

                     C

And resting,        I learned the secret of the shifting, whispering sands.

How I managed to escape from the valley, I don't know.

       G

But now to pay my debt for being saved, I must tell you

What I learned out on the desert so many years ago.

C                                                                                               G7

      (When the day is hardly quiet and the breeze seems not to blow,

                                                                                                    C

One would think the sand was resting but you'll find this is not so.

                                                                                       G7

It is whisp'ring, softly whisp'ring, as it slowly moves a-long.

                                                                                         C

And those who stop and listen, it will sing this mournful song.

             F                                                  C

Of side-winders and the horn toad on the thorny chaparral,

          D7                                                             G

In the sunny days and the moonlight nights, the lonely coyotes yell.)

               C                                                                                          G7

How the stars seem they could touch you as you lay and gaze on high

                                                                                                   C

At the heavens where you're hoping you'll be going when you die.