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© 2004 W. A. Kostelec
Railroad Boy
St. James Hotel in black and white
Is painted on the wall
There’s an evening breeze upon his back
From where the river flows
The Mississippi’s in the air
There’s a black hawk in the sky
He’s out walking on the sidewalk
Just to let the time go by
Let the time go by
You might say that he’s a pilgrim
Cause he’s always on the road
But he’s not much into Progress
It’s not a place he cares to go
Like a raft out on the river
Feel the river breezes blow
On a journey to Wherever
Just a rolling with the flow
Rolling with the flow
You can hear a train a winding down
Drop the throttle, lay on the brakes
Into pretty Red Wing station
Another stop in the land of lakes
It’s that Empire Builder heading West
Great Plains and glaciers up ahead
He watches it pull into the station
And remembers something someone said
Something someone said
They lay the tracks with a surveyor’s eye
With hammers spikes and steel
A train’s the prisoner of the tracks
It goes only where the track line wills
This old river’s another story
It made its own path long ago
And no matter how much you dam it
It will always control its flow
Always control its flow
St. James Hotel in black and white
Is painted on the wall
He can feel the breeze upon his back
From where the river flows
The Mississippi’s in the air
There’s a red hawk in the sky
He’s out walking on the sidewalk
Just to let the time go by
Let the time go by.
