Texas - 1947

(album: Old No. 1 - 1975)

Being six years old, I had seen some trains before
So it's hard to figure out what I'm at the depot for
Trains are big and black and smoking, steam screaming at the wheels
Bigger than anything there is, at least that's the way she feels

Trains are big and black and smoking, louder'n July four
But everybody's acting like this might be something more
Than just picking up the mail, or the soldiers from the war
This is something that even old man Wileman never seen before

And it's late afternoon on a hot Texas day
And something strange is going on, and we's all in the way

Well there's fifty or sixty people, just sitting on their cars
And the old men left their dominoes and come down from the bars
And everybody's checking, old Jack Kittrel check his watch
And us kids put our ears to the rails to hear 'em pop.

So we already knowed it, when they finally said "train time"
You'd a-thought that Jesus Christ his-self was rolling down the line
'Cause things got real quiet, mama jerked me back
But not before I'd got the chance to lay a nickel on the track

Look out, here she comes, she's coming
Look out, there she goes, she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone
Big and red and silver, she don't make no smoke
She's a fast-rolling streamline, come to show the folks

I said, look out, here she comes, she's coming
Look out, there she goes, she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone

Lord, she never even stopped

But she left fifty, sixty people still sitting on their cars
Wondering what it's coming to and how it got this far
But me, I got a nickel smashed flatter than a dime
By a mad dog, runaway red-silver streamline train

Look out, here she comes, she's coming
Look out, there she goes, she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone
Big and red and silver, she don't make no smoke
She's a fast-rolling streamline, come to show the folks

I said, look out, here she comes, she's coming
Look out, there she goes, she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone
Look out, here she comes, she's coming
Look out, there she goes, she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone
Look out, here she comes, she's coming
Look out, there she goes, she's gone
Screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cyclone