Jumpin' A Train

Ellis Paul

The time, 11:33 on a Saturday, November, 1923

I'm synchronized, it's wise to keep my wits about me

My name is Roy, a one-time choir boy

Now I'm sixteen, man, and I'm nobody's toy

I'm gonna take to the wind and get this town behind me



(chorus)

I'm jumpin' a train leavin' town

Howling whistle sounds

And I'm not looking back -- gonna tie my fate to a train track

Got a whiskey bottle tied in a corn sack

Hold on world, I'm coming, I'm hitching a ride on a north-bound train



Am I alive? Won't somebody tell me

The Mississippi waves, what's it trying to sell me?

Mud in the banks, but no one gets thanks

when it's tracked in through the doorway



I am home grown, sewn into these britches

But I'm not spending my life digging up ditches

Like my Daddy did, and his Daddy did, and his Daddy before