In the heat of the day down in Mobile, Alabama

Working on the railroad with the steel driving hammer

Gotta make some money to buy some brand new shoes

Tryin' to find somebody to take away these blues

"She don't love me" hear them singing in the sun

Payday's coming and my work is all done



Later in the evening when the sun is sinking low

All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow

Sitting in a teepee built right on the tracks

Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back

Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about

We've got an off-schedule train comin? two miles about



Everybody's scrambling, running around

Picking up their money, tearing the teepee down

Foreman wants to panic, ?bout to go insane

Trying to get the workers out the way of the train

Engineer blows the whistle loud and long

Can't stop the train, gotta let it roll on