The air is getting hotter

There's a rumbling in the skies

I've been wading through the high muddy water

With the heat rising in my eyes

Every day your memory grows dimmer

It doesn't haunt me like it did before

I've been walking through the middle of nowhere

Trying to get to heaven before they close the door



When I was in Missouri

They would not let me be

I had to leave there in a hurry

I only saw what they let me see

You broke a heart that loved you

Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore

I've been walking that lonesome valley

Trying to get to heaven before they close the door



People on the platforms

Waiting for the trains

I can hear their hearts a-beatin'

Like pendulums swinging on chains

When you think that you lost everything

You find out you can always lose a little more

I'm just going down the road feeling bad

Trying to get to heaven before they close the door



I'm going down the river

Down to New Orleans

They tell me everything is gonna be all right

But I don't know what "all right" even means

I was riding in a buggy with Miss Mary-Jane

Miss Mary-Jane got a house in Baltimore

I been all around the world, boys

Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door



Gonna sleep down in the parlor

And relive my dreams

I'll close my eyes and I wonder

If everything is as hollow as it seems

Some trains don't pull no gamblers

No midnight ramblers, like they did before

I been to Sugar Town, I shook the sugar down

Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door