Chucky Berry Downbound Train Lyrics

Downbound Train Lyrics

DOWNBOUND TRAIN

 Chuck Berry

 

 A stranger lying on a bar room floor

 

 had drank so much he could drink no more,

 

 and so he fell asleep with a troubled brain

 

 to dream that he rode on that down bound train.

 

 The engine with blood was sweaty and damp

 

 and brilliantly lit with a brimstone lamp,

 

 and imps for fuel was shoveling bones

 

 while the furnace rang with a thousand groans.

 

 The boiler was filled with lots of beer

 

 the devil himself was the engineer,

 

 the passengers were most a motley crew,

 

 some were foreigners and others he knew.

 

 rich men and lost beggars in rags

 

 handsome young ladies and wicked old hags.

 

 As the train rushed on at a terrible pace

 

 sulphuric fumes scorched their hands and face,

 

 wider and wider the country grew

 

 faster and faster the engine flew,

 

 louder and louder the thunder crashed

 

 brighter and brighter the lighting flashed,

 

 hotter and hotter the air became

 

 til their clothes were burned with each quivering refrain.

 

 Then out of the din there came a yell

 

 ha ha said the devil were nearing home,

 

 oh how the passengers shrieked with pain

 

 they go to Satan with this down bound train.

 

 The stranger awoke with an anguished cry

 

 his clothes wet with sweat and his hair standing high,

 

 he fell on his knees on the bar room floor

 

 and prayed a prayer like never before.

 

 And the prayers and vows were not in vain

 

 for he never rode that down bound train.