freight train, freight train, goin’ so fast (x2) please don’t tell what train I’m on so they won’t know where I’ve gone when I die bury me deep at the end of Chestnut Street so I can see old Number 9 as she goes rollin’ by freight train, freight train, goin’ so fast (x2) please don’t tell what train I’m on so they won’t know where I’ve gone when I’m dead and in my grave no more good times will I crave just place a stone at my head and feet tell ‘em all I’ve gone to sleep freight train, freight train, goin’ so fast (x2) please don’t tell what train I’m on so they won’t know where I’ve gone

restless wind moving through the trees temperature drops in a cold snap blow you left your sweater on my bedside I hope its warm where you decided to go thinkin' 'bout how I never told you I guess I didn't really know it myself I spent my whole life lookin’ I was looking for somebody else you hold the key to the window of my soul and there’s a wind outside I hope it’s warm where you decided to go ‘cause it’s cold in here and the window’s open wide I'm gonna save my money up put it in trust for a sun shiny day I'm gonna levitate you off of your feet let the warm winds blow our blues away everybody's got an outside and everybody's got an inside too the only trick that you have to learn is who to show it to you hold the key to the window of my soul and there’s a wind outside I hope it’s warm where you decided to go ‘cause it’s cold in here and the window’s open wide

there’s a donation jar on a cafe counter in a little Oregon town for the children who lost their parents when the mountainside came down and you put in your folding dollar bill and you go along your way and you wonder to yourself how it got to be that way how it got to be that way then you see the mills and the work yards with the logs all stacked in rows and you know it’s timber country and that’s how the money flows and you see the dark green forests a hundred miles wide with their roots all intertwined holding up the mountainside holding up the mountainside there was a family lived on the mountainside in the beautiful evergreen shadow and when the company came to clear cut they new there was gonna be trouble they took every standing tree as far as could be seen they must’ve made a fortune when they picked that mountain clean when they picked that mountain clean there were those who cried a warning with what little voice they had but the logic of the dollar is a logic that’s gone mad with their futures held to ransom and the ax all set to fall they would not be satisfied until they took it all until they took it all it rains every winter in Oregon and the river gives rise to a flood tide if it hadn’t of been for the clear cut there never would of been a landslide there never would of been a landslide and the mountain never would’ve come down and there never would’ve been such a tragedy in that little Oregon town in that little Oregon town for there were no trees to hold up that dreadful deadly flow when a million tons of mud and rock came crashing down below turned the children into orphans with their parents trapped inside it was murder by profit and that’s how those people died that’s how those people died so many came to the funeral and many tears were shed and many words were spoken and this is what they said “if there’s justice in this world then let that justice be for the landslide came from the clear cut and the clear cut came from the company it came from the company there’s a donation jar on a cafe counter in a little Oregon town for the children who lost their parents when the mountainside came down and you put in your folding dollar bill and you go along your way and you wonder to yourself how it got to be that way how it got to be that way

I’ll tell you a story all good friends of mine of the heroes and survivors of a terrible time two great peoples separated by the sea joined in understanding of a great calamity oh a great calamity 1831 it was the darkest of their years Andrew Jackson drove the Choctaw on the trail of tears with the saber and the rifle on a thousand mile drive to the land of Oklahoma only half would survive only half would survive they called it reservation it was a cage without wire what a hundred years later the Germans would admire surrounded by a state that held the lock and key to the vision of their future and their free humanity oh their free humanity half a world away in the emerald Irish land famine stalked the countryside with doom on every hand starvation, desperation driven to extremes they died eating grass their mouths stained with green oh their mouths stained with green and it was the British Empire that held the lock and key to their island reservation and their free humanity across the hungry countryside they walked a trail of tears through death and emigration half the people disappeared half the people disappeared news travels fast when it goes from hand to hand all across the mighty ocean to the Oklahoma land when the Choctaw heard the story of the Irish in their plight they new they were related though their skins were red and white though their skins were red and white and though their hands were nearly empty and their lands were nearly bare they collected all the money that they thought that they could spare and they sent it off to Ireland to their unknown new friends seven hundred dollars it was a fortune to them then it was a fortune to them then you may wonder at my story you may marvel at its worth but I tell you there is goodness in the people of the earth and I tell you there is beauty in the darkest of the days and a light to come shining blow the darkness all away blow the darkness all away

(chorus) I’m on the street again I’m on the street again and I ain’t been of it since I don’t know when I’m on the street again Freddie the Miser don’t give me no cheese Fat Alive wants me to say “please” Fingers Louie wants my coat Willie The Noose wants to measure my throat Crazy Alex ain’t all there but he comes out of nowhere swingin’ a chair a mad dog mob got me, tearin’ at my clothes I leave without my guitar, got a bloody nose (chorus) in the hot spot rock house top of the stairs they got animal dancers in their underwear wrestler maidens in sweet perfume jump on you like a kangaroo from clear across the room in Sheila’s Wine Emporium Hotel they hang by their heels with their heads in a well of rot gut, rat cured, Bowery booze burn a hole through your stomach, make you chew on your shoes (chorus) the electric 6-gun romance band make the most amazing sounds without using their hands me, I got my foot caught in one of their wires and it blew me through the roof in an electrical fire I was hangin’ ‘round the hydrant with the Afrikan Kidd when they busted everybody with a manhole lid I broke out the window with a ramrod log landed right in the mouth of a police dog (chorus) now, I may not be too smart in my head but I know enough to sleep when I’m lyin’ in bed if you want to break the law, you gotta be discrete but you don’t need a union card to sing on the street (chorus)

she put her feet beside me and the sun was going down she told me all those secrets, all those candles back in town seven minutes elsewhere and it rained with all its might the sun had long since gone and yet it stayed up all that night she held her eyes both in her hand and gave them both to me the avalanche exploded and a slave somewhere broke free yes all these songs taste like lilac wine I must taste them all some time I went out for a walk among the rain, among the snow the wind blew like a cistern and I had no place to go I saw a man was lying with his face into the wet his coat was torn, he wimpered, broken glass, a cigarette my eyes were filled with alleys as I helped him to his feet he thanked me with a smile and I walked off down the street yes all these songs taste like Arabian wine I must taste them all some time Sister spoke with innocence, she drew her bolt aside "stay here if you must, I know exactly what you need" she smiled like a fireside, one hand upon the bell I asked her if she knew and if she knew how could she tell she laughed and pointed with her Jesus to the sky saying "this is what you need and what you need is when you die" she offered me some wine, I saw her hand white as bone I told her I was lost, and could she show me my way home she laughed again and twinkled, and her hood fell to the side and I heard her say "right here with me, among the fireside" I excused myself and left her, and I left her all alone she with no relations and I with no way home yes all these songs taste like sacred wine I must taste them all some time

there’s somethin’ happenin’ that don’t seem right there’s people on the sidewalk a-talkin’ at night you can’t quite tell if they’re talkin ‘bout you but you got a funny feelin’ that it might be true and you can’t make it go away it’s gainin’ on you every day it’s only natural anyway and you can’t make it go away you can cover your eyes, you can bury your head you can duck inside and hide in your hot water bed turn up the radio as far as it’ll go you can go to the A Go Go or duck inside a disco but you can’t make it go away it’s gainin’ on you every day it’s only natural anyway and you can’t make it go away you can vibrate and meditate, evacuate your brain you can tune into TV till your eyes go lame you can grab onto god you can lock him in your pocket you can even stick your fingers in the light bulb socket but you can’t make it go away it’s gainin’ on you every day it’s only natural anyway and you can’t make it go away you can laugh us off with a wave of your hand you can look down upon us from where you stand invent statistics to insult and degrade you can make us illegal, you can lock us in the stockade but you can’t make us go away we’re gainin’ on you every day it’s only natural anyway and you can’t make it go away I can show you a dog, you can call it a cat you can do anything you want like that you can hammer your head in a solid brick wall and still maintain that it isn’t there at all but you can’t make it go away it’s gainin’ on you every day it’s only natural anyway and you can’t make it go away

you’re never alone, you’re never alone you’re never alone with your clone you can go out for the night and still stay at home you can call yourself on your cellular phone you don’t need a mirror to see how you’ve grown you’re never alone with your clone you can talk to yourself and it won’t look weird you can shave every day and still grow a beard have your duplicate personal re-engineered you’re never alone with your clone you can walk all the time in the other guy’s shoes you can give up your life for the cause that you choose and watch the reports on the evening news you’re never alone with your clone it’s a bi-focal schizophrenic occurrence standing in for yourself in a feat of endurance you can kill yourself, collect the insurance you’re never alone with your clone you can suffer the victim and be your own thief both sides of the law, above and beneath you can be your own dentist and pull your own teeth you’re never alone with your clone you can marry yourself if the laws will allow have sex with yourself but don’t ask me how immediate instant, the future is now you’re never alone with your clone and if you cloned your own clone in multiplication there would be no division in your population and you could be your own united nation you’re never alone with your clone and clone upon clone like the fishes and bread you could oh so fruitfully settle and spread until the whole wide world was identically bred you’re never alone with your clone as above and below in immaculate view you would look just like god who would look just like you and there would be nothing that you couldn’t do you’re never alone with your clone you could write your own warning upon your own wall in monotonous sameness the clarion call then you would go crazy and so would we all you’re never alone with your clone

the sun goes up and the sun goes down and all the many planets out spinning around hangin’ on to a little green piece of ground everything is round all around the lost and found tubular bells they make a tubular sound and the rollin’ balls go rollin’ around everything is round you can fantasize a straight line you can try it if you may but I guarantee that straight line is gonna turn around some day there’s a crazy man beatin’ on a big skin drum and everybody waitin’ for the kingdom come while every other kingdom just comes undone everything is round starting from the mother earth learning what a circle’s worth returning to the place of birth everything is round you can calculate the answer you can call it “M C Squared” but if space and time are truly curved then there are no squares out there if god could speak he’d have to say forget about the judgment day there’s no straight and narrow anyway everything is round entropy and institution a convoluted evolution revolving every revolution everything is round

well, it’s hard times on planet earth hard times tonight the money’s getting’ funny and there ain’t no end in sight everybody’s lookin’ for a place to run away to a college or a convent anything will do but just when you start thinkin’ that there isn’t any hope along comes a UFO to throw you all a rope and take you way up the sky high up in the sky they’ll carry you away they say way up in the sky astronauts see ‘em when they’re way up in the stratosphere Navy personnel when they’ve had a few beers house wives see ‘em when they’re strung out on the clothes line Timothy Leary saw ‘em almost all the time and they say “come along fly away with me it’s better than drugs and it beats TV” way up the sky high up in the sky they’ll carry you away they say way up in the sky some say they wave as they fly around the steeple some have even met ‘em say they’re real nice people some know ‘em personal and wouldn’t hesitate to invest in interplanetary real estate from the Milky Way to the mighty moons of Mars they say there’s gold in them thar stars way up the sky high up in the sky they’ll carry you away they say way up in the sky Jesus walks on water and he turns it into wine they say he’s comin’ back but he takes his time we been waitin’ two thousand years and he ain’t shown his face now finally someone’s come along to maybe take his place and save us all before we kill if Jesus don’t do it then the saucer people will and take you way up the sky high up in the sky they’ll carry you away they say way up in the sky you can Scientologize if you can pay the rice and soul travel unravels all the way to paradise Big Foot is helpful but he’s kinda hard to talk to everybody’s busy even the guru so join the new religion you won’t even have to pray just wait for an object to carry you away and take you way up the sky high up in the sky they’ll carry you away they say way up in the sky

early in the morning when the day begins Saint Martha comes a-calling and you let her in she is easily as hard as they come but it’s alright now if you don’t know sooner or later its bound to show she walks right in like she’s been there all along and there is no time to wonder which one of you belongs just time to collect it all and put it in a drum but it’s alright now if you don’t know sooner or later its bound to show she can keep all your clocks together and get you out on time she can take away your worries and straighten out your mind is it really any wonder everybody wants to get what comes but it’s alright now if you don’t know sooner or later its bound to show she carries all the questions you can put your answers to she can make or break the brainless one no matter if its true is it really any wonder so few ever get it done but it’s alright now if you don’t know sooner or later its bound to show she can set your life to music or make it impossible to sing you will realize too late she can do anything you will try to slow her down but she will keep you on the run but it’s alright now if you don’t know sooner or later its bound to show late inside the midnight as the clock begins to spin Saint Martha will be leaving you and who could keep her in she has left you in a corner and you’ll be there till dawn but it’s alright now if you don’t know sooner or later its bound to show

I met a young girl who sat on a step I saw her quite clearly quite early one night I spoke the first words that came to my head she sealed my fate when she answered “all right” she looked quite old though she was younger than I and I asked her how many like me she had seen “I never counted” she said with a grin I looked at my hand said I see what you mean I heard her say as the night was wearing thin and she printed my name on the bottom of her shoes “all those who pass by hey can never win but those who come in they can never lose” there are many fine seas to part with your hand and many fine roads if you know how to choose to some it’s a chance at the ax of the queen but to one it’s a name on an old pair of shoes