Lightfoot Gordon Railroad Trilogy Lyrics

Railroad Trilogy Lyrics

@ALBUM: 

 By Gordon Lightfoot

 

 

 @TITLE: RAILROAD TRILOGY 

 

 There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

 When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

 Long before the white man, and long before the wheel

 When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

 

 But time has no beginning and history has no bound

 As to this verdant country they came from all around

 They sailed upon her waterways and they walked her forests tall

 Built the mines, the mills and the factories for the good of us all

 

 And when the young man's fancy had turned into his brain

 The railroad men grew restless for to hear their hammers ring

 Their minds were overflowing with the visions of their day

 With many a fortune won and lost and many a debt to pay

 

 For they looked in the future and what did they see?

 They saw an iron road running from the sea to the sea

 Bringing the goods to a young growing land

 All up on the seaboards and into their hands

 

 Look away, said they

 Across this mighty land

 From the eastern shore

 To the western strand

 

 Bring in the workers and bring up the rails

 We've gotta lay down the tracks and tear up the trails

 Open her heart, let the lifeblood flow

 Gotta get on our way 'cause we're moving too slow

 

 Bring in the workers and bring up the rails

 We've gotta lay down the tracks and tear up the trails

 Open her heart, let the lifeblood flow

 Gotta get on our way 'cause we're moving too slow

 Get on our way 'cause we're moving too slow

 

 Behind the blue Rockies the sun is declining

 The stars they come stealing like the blows of the day

 Across the wide prairie our loved ones lie sleeping

 Beyond the dark oceans in a place far away

 

 We are the navvies who work on the railway

 Swinging our hammers in the bright blazing sun

 Living on stew and drinkin' bad whiskey

 Bending our backs 'til the long days are done

 

 We are the navvies who work upon the railway

 Swinging our hammers in the bright blazing sun

 Laying down track, and building the bridges

 Bending our backs 'til the railroad is done

 

 So over the mountains and over the plains

 Into the muskeg and into the rain

 Up the St Lawrence all the way to Gaspe

 Swinging our hammers and drawin' our pay

 

 Driving 'em in and tying 'em down

 Away to the bulkhouse and into the town

 A dollar a day and a place for my head

 A drink to the living, a toast to the dead

 

 Oh the song, ah the future has been sung

 All the battles have been won

 On the mountain tops we stand

 All the world at our command

 We have opened up the soil

 With our teardrops and our toil

 

 Oh there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

 When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

 Long before the white man, and long before the wheel

 When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

 When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

 And many are the dead men... too silent to be real