Texas 1947

Texas 1947 - Guy Clark

Now bein' 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 smokin' - steam screamin' at the wheels

Bigger than anything they is at least that's the way she feels

Trains are big and black and smokin' louder'n July four

But everybody's actin' like this might be somethin' more

than just pickin' up the mail or the soldiers from the war

This is somethin' that even old man Wileman never seen before

And it's late afternoon on a hot Texas day

Somethin' strange is goin' on and we's all in the way

Well there's fifty or sixty people they're just sittin' on their cars

And the old men left their dominos and they come down from the bars

Everybody's checkin' 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 rollin' down the line

'Cause things got real quiet momma 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 comin'

Look out there she goes she's gone

Screamin' straight through Texas

Like a mad dog cyclone

Big red and silver

She don't make no smoke

She's a fast-rollin' streamline

Come to show the folks

Look out here she comes she's comin'

Look out there she goes she's gone

Screamin' straight through Texas

Like a mad dog cyclone

Lord she never even stopped

She left fifty or sixty people still sittin' on their cars

And they're wonderin' what it's comin' to

And how it got this far

Oh 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 comin'

Look out there she goes she's gone

Screamin' straight through Texas

Like a mad dog cyclone

Big red and silver

She don't make no smoke

She's a fast-rollin' streamline

Come to show the folks

Look out here she comes she's comin'

Look out there she goes she's gone

Screamin' straight through Texas

Like a mad dog cyclone