Steve Earle

Train A Comin'

Last updated: 27 September 1998

Train A Comin' album cover

Mystery Train Part II
(Steve Earle)   [1995]

There's a train a comin' There's a train a comin
Hear them tracks a hummin' There's a train a comin'

Can't you hear her blowin' Can't you hear her blowin'
Wonder where she's goin' Can't you hear her blowin'

Run down the station Run down to the station
Dread and fascination Run down to the station

Don't you want to ride her Don't you want to ride her
Wonder what's inside her Don't you want to ride her

She ain't bound for nowhere She ain't bound for nowhere
Engineer just don't care She ain't bound for nowhere

She run down the mountain She run down the mountain
She won't even slow down mmm down the mountain

There's a train a comin' There's a train a comin'
Hear them tracks a hummin' There's a train a comin'
 

Hometown Blues
(Steve Earle)   [1977]

I wish I'd never come back home
It don't feel right since I've been grown
I can't find any of my old friends hangin' 'round
Won't nothin' bring you down like your hometown

I spent some time in New Orleans
I had to live on rice and beans
I hitched through Texas when the sun was beatin' down
Won't nothin' bring you down like your hometown

CHORUS
Home is where the heart is
Ain't that what they always say
My heart lies in broken pieces
Scattered along the way

So don't think about me when I'm gone
I don't mind travelin' alone
You are the sweetest little thing I ever found
Won't nothin' bring you down like your hometown

Sometimes She Forgets
(Steve Earle)   [1979]

If you see her out tonight
And she tells you it's just the lights
That bring her here and not her loneliness
That's what she says but sometimes she forgets

If she tells you she don't need a man
She's had all the comfort she can stand
You'd best believe every word she says
But don't give up 'cause sometimes she forgets

Sometimes she forgets that not too long ago she swore
She wasn't gonna let her heart be broken anymore

So now she keeps it locked away
It grows colder every day
And it won't warm to any man's caress
That's what she says but sometimes she forgets

Sometimes she forgets that not too long ago she swore
She wasn't gonna let her heart be broken anymore

Hey now don't give up 'cause sometimes she forgets


Mercenary Song
(Steve Earle)   [1974]

Me and Bill there we both come from Georgia
Met Hank out in New Mexico
We're bound for Duranqo to join Pancho Villa
We hear that he's payin' in gold

I guess a man's got to do what he's best at
Ain't found nothin' better so far
Been called mercenaries and men with no country
Just soldiers in search of a war

CHORUS
And we're bound for the border
We're soldiers of fortune
And we'll fight for no country but we'll die for good pay
Under the flag of of the greenback dollar
Or the peso down Mexico way

When this war is over might go back to Georgia
And settle down quiet some where
I'll most likely pack up and head south for Chile
Heard tell there's some trouble down there

Goodbye
(Steve Earle)   [1995]

I remember holdin on to you
All them long and lonely nights I put you through
Somewhere in there I'm sure I made you cry
But I can't remember if we said goodbye

CHORUS

But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico
One place I may never go in my life again
Was I just off somewhere just too high
But I can't remember if we said goodbye

I only miss you here every now and then
Like the soft breeze blowin; up from the Caribbean
Most Novembers I break down and cry
But I can't remember if we said goodbye

CHORUS

Tom Ames' Prayer
(Steve Earle)   [1975]

Everyone in Nacadoches knew Tom Ames would come to some bad end
Well the sheriff had cought him stealin' chickens and such
by the time that he was ten

And one day his daddy took a ten dollar bill
and he tucked it in his hand
He said I can tell you're headed for trouble son
and your momma wouldn't understand

So he took that money and his brothers old bay
and he left without a word of thanks
Fell in with a crowd in some border town
and took to robbin' banks

Outside the law your luck will run out fast
and a few years came and went
'Till he's trapped in an alley in Abilene
with all but four shells spent

And he realized prayin' was the only thing
that he hadn't ever tried
Well he wasn't sure he knew quite how
but he looked up to the sky

Said you don't owe me nothin' and as far as I know
Lord don't owe nothin' to you
And I ain't askin' for a miracle Lord
just a little bit of luck will do

And you know I ain't never prayed before
but it always seemed to me
If prayin' is the same as beggin' Lord
I don't take no charity

Yeah but right now Lord with my back to the wall
Can't help but recall
How they nearly hung me for stealin' a horse
in Fort Smith Arkansas

Judge Parker said guilty and the gavel came down
just like a cannon shot
And I went away quietly
and I began to file and plot

Well they sent the preacher down to my cell
He said the Lord is your only hope
He's the only friend that you gonna have
When you hit the end of Parker's rope

Well I guess he coulda' kept on preachin' 'till Christmas
but he turned his back on me
I put a home made blade to that golden throat
and asked the deputy for the key

Well it ain't the first close call I ever had
I'm sure you already know
I had some help from you Lord and the devil himself
It's been strictly touch and go

Yeah but who in the hell am I talkin' to
there ain't no one here but me
Then he cocked both his pistols and he spit in the dirt
and he walked out in the street

Nothin' Without You
(Steve Earle)   [1980]

I'm the keeper of your heart
I keep the flame when we're apart
I'm the lover in your arms
Or a baby soft and warm

I'm a hero in your eyes
I'm a comfort when you cry
When you hurt me I'm your fool
But I'm nothin' without you

(CHORUS)

No I'm nothin' without you
It don't matter what I do
If I win or if I lose
Sweetheart I'm nothin' without you

I'm a beacon in the night
To show the way until it's light
I'm a stumbler in the dark
When I can't say what's in my heart

I'm a poet just the same
Every time I speak your name
I'm just a shadow when I'm blue
But I'm nothin' without you

(CHORUS)

Angel Is The Devil
(Steve Earle)   [1992]

Everybody call her angel
she's no stranger to the devil I know
His mark is on her body
His fire's burnin' in her soul
When we're makin' love
he's laughin' at us down below
she's the devil I know

CHORUS
She's the devil I know
She's the devil I know
Said she come from heaven
Angel is the devil I know
She's the devil I know

Now she's the kind a woman
keep you comin' back for more
Got the kind of face
you swear you seen someplace before
Coulda` been your mamma
Coulda' been a Mexican whore
She's the devil I know

Now she'd drag you straight to hell
I can tell and I think I'll just go
Yeah the devil sent her here
to deliver me body and soul
Yeah and every inch she drags me down
I'm closer to the glow
She`s the devil I know

I'm Looking Through You
(John Lennon, Paul McCartney)

I'm lookin' through you where did you go
I thought I knew you what did I know
You don't look different but you have changed
I'm Iooking through you you're not the same

Your lips are moving I cannot hear
Your voice is soothing but the words aren't clear
You don't sound different I've learned the game
I'm looking through you you're not the same

BRIDGE
Why tell me why did you not treat me right
Love has a nasty habit of disappearing over night

You're thinking of me the same old way
You were above me but not today
the only difference is you're down there
I'm looking through you and you're nowhere

Northern Winds
(Norman Blake)   [1995]

(instrumental)

Ben McCulloch
(Steve Earle)   [1975]

We signed up in San Antone my brother Paul and me
To fight with Ben McCulloch and the Texas infantry
Well the poster said we'd get a uniform and seven bucks a week
The best rations in the army and a rifle we could keep

When I first laid eyes on the general I knew he was a fightin' man
He was every inch a soldier every word was his command
Well his eyes were cold as the lead and steel forged into tools of war
He took the lives of many and the souls of many more

Well they marched us to Missouri and we hardly stopped for rest
Then he made this speech and said we're comin' to the test
Well we've got to take Saint Louie boys before the yankees do
If we control the Mississippi then the Federals are through

Well they told us that our enemy would all be dressed in blue
They forgot about the winter's cold and the cursed fever too
My brother died at Wilson's creek and Lord I seen him fall
We fell back to the Boston Mountains in the North of Arkansas

CHORUS
Goddamn you Ben McCulloch
I hate you more than any other man alive
And when you die you'll be a foot soldier just like me
In the devil's infantry

And on the way to Fayetteville we cursed McCulloch`s name
And mourned the dead that we'd left behind and we was carrying the lame
I killed a boy the other night who'd never even shaved
I don't even know what I'm fightin' for I ain't never owned a slave

So I snuck out of camp and then I heard the news next night
The Yankees won the battle and McCulloch lost his life

Rivers Of Babylon
(B. Crowe, James A. McNaughton, G. Reyam, F. Farian)

(adaptation of Psalm 137)

By the rivers of Babylon
Where he sat down
And there he wept
When he remember Zion

It was the wicked

CHORUS
Carry us away captivity
Require from us a song
How can we sing King Alfa's song
In a strange land

Tecumseh Valley
(Townes Van Zandt)

The name she gave was Caroline
The daughter of a miner
And her ways were free and it seemed to me
The sunshine walked beside her

She come from Spencer 'coss the hill
She said her Pa had sent her
'Cause the coal was low and soon the snow
Would tuwn the skies to winter

Well she said she'd come to look for work
She was not seeking favors
For a dime a day and a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor

The times were hard Lord the jobs were few
All through Tecumseh Valley
But she asked around and a job she found
Tending bar for Gypsy Sally

She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied her Pa had died
The word came down from Spencer

She turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
It was many a man returned again
To lay himself beside her

Well they found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sally's
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well Tecumseh Valley

© 2003-2007 Clint Harris  (clint@steveearle.net) – All Rights Reserved
© 1995-2003 Lisa Kemper  – All Rights Reserved

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