The Air Conditioner Song

(album: A Bird Named Yesterday - 1967)

Oh, the sound of the thing is not a ring
It's more like a pleasant purr
And the only sound I hear at night
Is the sound of my purring air-conditioner.

The air is pure and dehumidified
Thermostatically controlled
Now I have no desire to perspire
And that's how progress goes.

But the sound of their singing thrilled me
As distantly but clearly it rang
Though I never saw their faces
And never knew their names.

And the gentle breeze brought sweet dreams
Of sweethearts that I never saw
Who sang "You Are My Sunshine"
In Newport, Arkansas...

[Narrative by Bobby spoken after song:]
(I had a bird he flew away and I guess he's gone to stay
But I see him winging on his way my flyaway bird named Yesterday)
(He's riding on a train)
I'm from Chattanooga Tennessee
That's a town that's neither very large nor very small
But it was a very strategic place about a hundred years ago
Though during the Civil War cause it was a very important rail center
In 1862 a federal agent got the idea
Of destroing the railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga
So he alone with 27 volunteers captured the train engine called the General
And they captured it in big Shanty Georgia
While its passengers and crew were eating breakfast
And there was a big chase that followed but finally the General was
recaptured In fact that old engine is on display in our train station now
And sometimes they take it out on the tour under its own steam
Yeah the old General still runs and I go down to the station sometimes
And just stand and look at that old engine cause I like trains anyway
You know when you think about it trains are not really much different today
Than they were a hundred or so years ago
Oh the engines have changed from steam to diesel but that's about all
Some folks say they're not very practical for carrying passangers
And that all the passanger trains will be gone in a few years
But we still have a few of 'em left and every once in a while
I like to get on one and take a trip somewhere
And when I'm on a train I always have a strange feeling that I'm visiting the
past You know Abraham Lincoln rode trains but he never rode in a car or a
bus or an airplane.