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Sunset Train

from Lucky Hand (2000, album) by Paul Sprawl

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about

Inspired by a trip on the Sunset Limited (Amtrak) from LA to Orlando over three days. I was on a 30-day North American Rail Pass and traveled around the continent, sleeping on the lounge car floor on an inflatable mattress.

In memory of Tim Congdon, who always liked this song and particularly this way of playing it - slow and with all the verses!

lyrics

1.
Beaumont scrapyard
Rusting in the rain
Rolling slowly on this sunset train
Beautiful junk
Rusting like the leaves
Child of Fall
Winter conceived

~chorus~
Singing roll
Gently down the rail
Merrily past this tearful vale

2.
Riverboats like the memories in my head
New Orleans graveyard city of the dead
Houses on stilts in the Gulf of Mexico
Rolling over swamps while the sun sinks low

~chorus~
Singing roll
Gently down the rail
Merrily past this tearful vale

3.
Talking with Betty for three days or so
Told me things that happened years ago
Had to ride in the back of the bus
Before Rosa Parks made all that fuss

~chorus~
Singing roll
Gently down the rail
Merrily past this tearful vale

4.
Heading up north
Through Laurel, Mississippi
New conductor gets on
Starts talking to me
Says, "It was so cold this morning
My wife didn't need a milk bucket.
She just squirted it over her arms
and toted it in like fire wood."

~chorus~
Singing roll
Gently down the rail
Merrily past this tearful vale

Beaumont scrapyard
Rusting in the rain

credits

from Lucky Hand (2000, album), released June 1, 2000
Paul Sprawl - voice, guitar, harmonica

license

all rights reserved

tags

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