Living In The Country

(Traditional)

You know the guitar came to Europe with the gypsies 700 years ago

Spain brought the guitar to Mexico 400 years ago

U.S.A. picked a quarrel with Mexico and got Texas and California

And it also got the guitar and the guitar got us

It was Afro American people in the south

That worked out this way of playing it though

You know in Europe they usually play a guitar

But the Afro American peple worked out a way to play it

Just like a drum band

The base strings were played by a thumb with a steady beat

And the top strings were played

With the finger and got all the little off beats

Up in Syracuse there's a 92 year old woman

Who wrote a song, which some of you may know

She plays it, who knows it?

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast

Please don't tell them which train I'm on

So they won't know which route I've gone

When I die just bury me deep

Down at the foot of old Chestnut Street

So I can hear old number nine

As she goes roaring by

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast

Please don't tell them which train I'm on

So they won't know which route I've gone

When I'm dead and in my grave

No more good times do I crave

Place the tombstone at my head and my feet

Tell my friends that I've gone to sleep

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast

Please don't tell them which train I'm on

So they won't know which route I've gone