Adrian Belew – The Rail Song

I recall as a boy we would hop the freights

wasn’t nothin’ but a kick back then

there was no better thrill for my anxious heart

than a long flatcar

headin’ out of the yard

and I knew even then she was in my blood

like the time when I first hired on

and the fireman laughed at my bony nose

but he tossed me a cap

said GM&O

and I was a man…

I gave her my best years

well, what can you do but laugh

I don’t expect she’ll ever be coming back

When we climbed up the great Appalachians

her engines would be raging like hell

then we’d come back down to the rising towns

where the cattle stare

in the frozen air

For me there nothing more sacred

than the beautiful sound she’d make

her long blue signal blowin’ deep in the night,

it would get to me there,

it would get to me there

Now I’m afraid…

Afraid of these silent hours

awake underneath my old cap

I don’t expect she’ll ever be coming back

Well, I watched the beginning of the end for her

when I saw my first jet airplane

flying high overhead like a bird of prey

while the mighty fell

in the land of the brave

Now I’m alone.