Southwest Chief
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
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Lyrics
Leaving Chicago on the Southwest Chief
Past the old brick buildings on bootleggers' streets
At the back of the train in the cold Midwest wind
I hear her engine howl and I feel alive again
Southwest Chief, let your whistle blow
Wherever you're heading, I wanna go
Racing through cornfields and nameless small towns
Porch lights coming on as the sun's going down
And folks I've known and loved keep crossing my mind
As the Chief keeps on pushing and making up lost time
And I remember my friend Bill Morrissey
We were gonna write a song but that never came to be
"Make it a blues," he said, "sweet, tough and sincere
'Cause we only come around once and then we disappear"
Southwest Chief, let your whistle blow
Wherever you're heading, I wanna go
Kansas City has lightning, Colorado has rain
The simple things in life are so hard to explain
Like your lover's voice whispering your name
Or a prairie sunrise from the back of a train
The hills of Santa Fe are dusted with snow
And Spirit stands above the land of the Navajo
So I say an old prayer that I learned as a child
About the hopeless, the helpless, the damned and the wild
Southwest Chief, let your whistle blow
Wherever you're heading, I wanna go
Days from Chicago on the Southwest Chief
Riding steel wheels and searching for some peace
Crossing the Mojave, coyotes running by
Then through the mountains where the condors still fly
Soon freeways and tract homes are all that I can see
So I close my eyes and think about what the future might be
The conductor hollers, "It's the end of the line"
But I think I'll stay right here and ride you one more time
Southwest Chief, let your whistle blow
Wherever you're heading, I wanna go
Southwest Chief, let your whistle blow
Wherever you're heading, I'm gonna go