Like desperados waitin' for a train I'd play the Red River Valley And he'd sit out in the kitchen and cry And run his fingers through seventy years of livin' And wonder, "Lord, has ever' well I've drilled run dry?" We were friends, me and this old man

There ain't no midnight train Comin' down the line I was standin' at the station, ten to midnight in the rain I was mindin' my own bus'ness, waiting for that midnight train Nobody in sight, starin' at my shoes, I took out my paper to find me some good

If I don't get to the border then I'll write. I gotta get that southbound train tonight, In the heat of the day many miles away When the sun is beating down upon the main street I'll be waiting here at the station, I gotta move down the line. They'll be

Trying to get my way home Driving towards the daylight Running from the spotlight Trying to find the daylight Running from the midnight Trying to get back home Look upon a mountain Waitin' on a train Baby I know what's wrong

And I can't tell if you're laughing Between each smile there's a tear in your eye There's a train leaving town in an hour Its not waiting for you and neither am I One last thing I beg you please just before you go I've watched you fly on paper wings half

For you to come along, and play There's monsters, they cry alone They're waiting He went to bed with the light Cause in the, dark Billy was a train, driving man He went from one side to the other side of town