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Ride This Train Full Album by Johnny Cash
Ride This Train Full Album
Tuning:E A D G B E
Capo:1st fret
# Title
1.) Loading Coal
2.) Slow Rider
3.) Lumberjack
4.) Dorraine of Ponchartrain
5.) Going to Memphis
6.) When Papa Played the Dobro
7.) Boss Jack
8.) Old Doc Brown
[!] Capo on 1st fret for all songs [!]
Ride this train up and down and across this strange, wonderful land.
It's almost like a fairyland when you think about it.
You go through places with names like...
Tuscaloosa, Kokomo, Muskogee, Oshkosh, Saginaw, Eureka, Bandera, Battle Creek, Sioux City, Chattanooga,
Hattiesburg, Lynchburg and Bald Knob, Arkansas.
You see, I'm a million different people from all over the world.
And I've been coming to this country for hundreds of years.
This was the promised land for me.
But let's not forget that when I came here, there were already millions of people
living in teepees along the rivers and hunting deer and buffalo for food and shelter.
And it's with a little regret that I think of how I pushed them back and crowded them out
to claim this land for myself or for another country.
But the Indians' hearts must have been full of music, for they left names with me that seem to sing.
Names like...
Mohawk, Mandan, Kickapoo, Cree
Yakima, Seminole, Crow, Shawnee
Choctaw, Delaware, Fox, Paiute
Winnebago, Cheyenne, Blackfoot
Navajo, Ute, Comanche, Quapaw
Creek, Apache, Sioux, Chippewa
Ottawa, Hupa, Shoshone
Mohican, Osage, Menominee
Chinook, Arapaho, Nez Percé
Iroquois, Pawnee, Kutenai
Flathead, Chickasaw, Pueblo
Yuma, Pima, Pomo, Caddo
Well, a lot of them are still with me, and I'm glad.
It's for sure their names will always be with me.
But let's look a little at the heart and muscle of this land.
A few things you don't read in books, things that aren't taught in school.
Now, you take this little town we're going through here; this is Beech Creek, Kentucky.
And right down there in the valley, that's where our house used to be.
It was a little shotgun shack with a spring out back and a smokehouse and another little bitty house
and that's about all.
My pa was a coal miner like most everybody in Muhlenberg County. Worked in the mines all his life.
I guess he didn't have much ambition to do anything else, 'cause they say coal mining
kinda gets in your blood.
Matter of fact, Pa said if they ever drained the blood out of him,
it would be blacker than blackstrap molasses.
When I was a kid, I used to sit at the fireplace there with Mom.
We'd wait on Pa to get in from the mine, and we'd sure get anxious if he was ever late.
Ma would rock back and forth and watch the clock, listening for Pa to hit the front porch.
Then he'd come in, nothing clean but the whites of his eyes.
And he'd reach for that lye soap and start scrubbing.
And I'd stand back and watch him and say to myself,
"Boy, I'll be glad when I get big enough to work in the mines."
1.) "Loading Coal"
[Intro]
D A Bm A
[Verse 1]
A
My pappy said when I was seventeen
D A
"You're six feet tall and your face is clean
D
And it don't look right for a boy that old
A F#m
To not make a living loading coal"
[Chorus]
A
Loading coal, loading coal
D A
I'm a double first cousin to a dad-blamed mole
D
Never get rich for to save my soul
A F#m
In forty-leven years of loading coal
A
Loading coal
[Verse 2]
A
Ain't never got acquainted with a dollar bill
D A
And I don't ever reckon that I ever will
D
A dollar ain't made for a feller, I'm told
A F#m
That scoops up a living loading coal
[Chorus]
A
Loading coal, loading coal
D A
I'm a double first cousin to a dad-blamed mole
D
Never get rich for to save my soul
A F#m
In forty-leven years of loading coal
A
Loading coal
[Interlude]
D A Bm A
[Verse 3]
A
I cussed everything in the mining camp
D A
From a shovel and my pick to my carbide lamp
D
But I know mighty well 'til I grow old
A F#m
I'll still be a-cussing, but loading coal
[Chorus]
A
Loading coal, loading coal
D A
I'm a double first cousin to a dad-blamed mole
D
Never get rich for to save my soul
A F#m
In forty-leven years of loading coal
A
Loading coal
[Interlude]
D A Bm A
[Verse 4]
A
I know just as well as coal is black
D A
One of these days, the mines will strike
D
And I'll sit around starving 'til I'm finally told
A F#m
"There's a nickel more a ton for loading coal"
[Chorus]
A
Loading coal, loading coal
D A
I'm a double first cousin to a dad-blamed mole
D
Never get rich for to save my soul
A F#m
In forty-leven years of loading coal
A
Loading coal
[Outro]
A
Loading coal
A
Loading coal
A
Loading coal
Ride this train to any little trail in the West.
You may find me riding alone late at night.
My poor old horse don't understand why I ride at night and sleep in the daytime,
or why we ride into the bushes and hide every time I hear a noise.
Well, that's all I've done for months now, running and hiding.
You see, my name is John Wesley Hardin. No, I'm not proud of the name anymore.
They say I've killed forty men. They tell a lot of different stories about me.
Of course, I guess I'm to blame for a lot of it.
I killed the first time when I was 15 to save my life, but then, I had to do it again.
Then, every bum in the country that was fast with the gun started looking for me.
They called me "The Fastest Gun Alive" and I guess I was fast or I wouldn't be alive now.
I got to where I couldn't walk down a street or in a saloon without some trigger-happy cowpoke
wanting to prove he could outdraw old John Wesley Hardin.
Maybe I got a little bitter and didn't care whether I killed or not for a while, and I never quite forgot
when the authorities in Huntsville prison dragged me out in the snow naked and horsewhipped me.
Well, that's why I'm riding at night.
I want to go where no one has ever seen me, where I won't even have to wear a gun.
Maybe I can settle down in a quiet, little town somewhere. Even get a job on the right side of the law.
Who knows? Maybe in a new town, the people will let me forget.
2.) "Slow Rider"
[Intro]
D
[Verse 1]
D
I ride an old Paint, he's on the weary side
A7 D
And I am a saddle tramp about to cross the great divide
A7 D
Where there's grass in the coulees and water in the draw
A7 D
And the forty-pound saddle won't make us both raw
[Chorus]
A7 D
Slow rider, slow rider, move on a little more
A7 D
The sky boss is waiting at the big ranch house door
[Verse 2]
D
I can't help but missing the daughters that I had
A7 D
One went to Denver, the other went bad
A7 D
My young wife died in a poolroom fight
A7 D
But I try to keep singing from morning 'til night
[Chorus]
A7 D
Slow rider, slow rider, move on a little more
A7 D
The sky boss is waiting at the big ranch house door
[Interlude]
A7 D
[Verse 3]
D
Whenever I die, take my saddle from the wall
A7 D
Strap it on Snuffy, lead him out of the stall
A7 D
Throw me on his back and turn him toward the West
A7 D
He knows how to take me to the spot I love best
[Chorus]
A7 D
Slow rider, slow rider, move on a little more
A7 D
The sky boss is waiting at the big ranch house door
Ride this train to Roseburg, Oregon.
Now there's a town for you. And you talk about rough!
You know, a lot of places in the country claim Paul Bunyan lived there.
But you should have seen Roseburg when me and my daddy come there.
Every one of them loggers looked like Paul Bunyan to me, 'cause I was a skinny kid about sixteen
and I was scared to death when we walked into that camp.
None of the lumberjacks paid any attention to me at first.
But when my pa told the boss that me and him wanted a job, a lot of 'em stopped their work
to see what was gonna happen.
That big boss walked around me, looked me up and down and said,
"Mister, I believe that boy is made out of second growth timber," and I guess I was.
Everybody but me and Pa had a big laugh over it.
Pa got kinda mad and the boss finally said he might start me out as a high climber.
I didn't know what a high climber was. Boy, I sure learned fast!
That steel-corded rope cut my back and that axe, I thought it was gonna break my arms off.
But I stuck with it, and it wasn't long 'til I learned that a man's got to be a lot tougher
than the timber he's cutting.
Finally, I could swing that crosscut saw with the best of them.
3.) "Lumberjack"
[Verse 1]
N.C. A D A
I lived on a farm out in Io-way
E
I pulled the corn and I worked in the hay
A D
Got trapped by a girl but I wiggled free
A E A
Heard the Oregon timber calling me
[Chorus]
A D A
Will you tell me something, Mr. Lumberjack?
E
Is it one for forward and three for back?
A D
Is it two for stop or four for go?
A D A
Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know
[Verse 2]
A D A
Well, I learned this fact from a logger named Ray
E
You don't cut timber on a windy day
A D
Stay out of the woods when the moisture's low
A E A
Or you ain't gonna live to collect your dough
[Chorus]
A D A
Will you tell me something, Mr. Lumberjack?
E
Is it one for forward and three for back?
A D
Is it two for stop or four for go?
A D A
Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know
[Verse 3]
A D A
Well, you work in the woods from morning to night
E
You laugh and sing and you cuss and fight
A D
On Saturday night, you go to Eugene
A E A
And on a Sunday morning, your pockets are clean
[Chorus]
A D A
Will you tell me something, Mr. Lumberjack?
E
Is it one for forward and three for back?
A D
Is it two for stop or four for go?
A D A
Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know
Ride this train to Bogalusa, Louisiana.
See these swamps and forest? Man's never set foot in a lot of it.
You'll find alligator, mink, 'coon, possum, squirrel, otter and the lakes are full of fish.
You'll find places so virgin and fresh that you'll think the Lord just created it yesterday.
As a matter of fact, some people say when this world was made,
a whole lot of it must have looked just like southern Louisiana does now.
In 1788, I left Halifax, Nova Scotia with about 200 other Acadians.
We made a long, tiring journey south.
In our party of 200, there was this beautiful girl that I just haven't quite been able to forget.
Dorraine was her name, and Dorraine and I were... well, we were kinda pledged to each other.
And what we said, when we got to the promised land, we'd build us a house
and someday we'd have the biggest sugarcane plantation in the country.
And I used to make Dorraine blush when I'd tell her we'd raise the biggest family in the country too.
4.) "Dorraine of Ponchartrain"
[Intro]
A
[Verse 1]
A D
As I walked by the lake one day, by chance my Dorraine passed my way
A B7 E7
Then, she and I walked hand in hand on the banks of Pontchartrain
A D
I pinned a flower on her heart, I swore we'd never be apart
A E7 A
She vowed her love forever and, as I kissed her, did the same
[Chorus]
A D
Dorraine, my Dorraine
A
My dark-haired little angel
E7 A
My belle of Pontchartrain
[Verse 2]
A D
We sat down on the dock and with our hearts and fingers locked
A B7 E7
We laughed and talked and joked about when our names are the same
A D
And joking, I said, "Honey, are you marrying me for money?"
A E7 A
And it took just one quick look to tell it hurt my dear Dorraine
[Verse 3]
A D
She jumped and stood above me and she cried, "Why, you don't love me!
A B7 E7
I'm rowing home across the lake. You won't see me again."
A D
I called and called some more, but she rowed fast from the shore
A E7 A
And the clouds brought by a wind began to rain on Pontchartrain
[Chorus]
A D
Dorraine, I called Dorraine
A
Come back, my little angel
E7 A
My belle of Pontchartrain
[Verse 3]
A D
The storm should make her learn that she should make a swift return
A B7 E7
But as the rain fell harder, I lost sight of my Dorraine
A D
As panic gripped my heart, I drew the oars and made my start
A E7 A
To look for her on raging water and the rain on Pontchartrain
[Verse 4]
A D
At darkness, I still called, but no one heard my cries at all
A B7 E7
And when the daybreak came then others helped me look for my Dorraine
A D
But there was not a thing afloat except the oars from her rowboat
A E7 A
For all was lost upon the choppy waves and rain on Pontchartrain
[Verse 5]
A D
Now I come day after day to where my sweetheart rowed away
A B7 E7
And I gaze across the water of the rainy Pontchartrain
A D
Just one thing and nothing more ever floated back to shore
A E7 A
It was this flower I hold, it is the one I pinned on my Dorraine
[Chorus]
A D
Dorraine, my Dorraine
A
My dark-haired little angel
E7 A
My belle of Pontchartrain
Ride this train to Pine Ridge, Mississippi.
See that levee there? It was built to hold back the waters of Old Man River when he gets on a rampage.
And he gets on a rampage, believe me.
One of these days, he's gonna come right over that levee and we're gonna have to head for the hills again.
And do you know how that levee was built, mister? Not with machines. It was built with elbow grease.
They got the men off the farms, out of the houses, even out of the honky-tonks on Saturday night.
I don't hardly know how it happened, to me it happened fast.
I just remember I was in the Green Lantern in Natchez one Saturday night.
And somebody pulled a knife and somebody threw the bottle, and the next thing I knew,
I had a chain on my leg and a shovel in my hand.
It seemed like the whole world come down on me.
They whipped us like mules, and when they did feed us, there was always a fight or a killing
over who was gonna get the biggest piece of meat.
Course, the boss man didn't care about the killings.
That is, unless you killed a good worker; then you'd get killed.
If you complain about anything, they're just liable to give you a chance to get away.
You know what I mean? They take the chains off of ya legs and beg you to run so they can shoot ya.
5.) "Going to Memphis"
[Intro]
N.C.
[Verse 1]
N.C.
Bring a drink of water, Leroy
N.C.
Bring a drink of water (No)
N.C.
If I could get to the mercy man
N.C.
He'd give me some I know
N.C.
I got a gal in Vicksburg
N.C.
Bertha is her name
N.C.
Wish I was tied to Bertha
N.C.
Instead of this ball and chain
[Chorus]
A
I'm going to Memphis (That's right, Lord)
A
Yeah (Uh huh)
[Verse 2]
A
A dude took all my money
A
Wouldn't let me see the cards
A
I owe the boss about a hundred years
E A
For sleeping in his backyard
[Chorus]
A
I'm going to Memphis (yeah, Memphis)
A
Yeah, I'm going to Memphis
[Bridge]
A D
Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed
A
But when that levee's through and I am too
A
Let the honky-tonk roll on
E A
Come morning, I'll be gone
[Chorus]
A
I'm going to Memphis
A
Yeah, Memphis
[Verse 3]
A
I never been to Chicago
A
But it must be a mighty fine place (that's right)
A
I couldn't get past Tennessee
A
With Mississippi all over my face (uh huh)
[Chorus]
A
I'm going to Memphis (That's right Lord, Memphis)
[Verse 4]
A
Well, the freezing ground at night
E A
Is my own folding bed
A
Poke salad is my bread and meat
E A
And it will be 'til I'm dead
[Verse 5]
A
Well, I brought me a little water
E A
In a Mr. Prince Albert can (uh huh)
A
But the boss man caught me drinking it
E A
And I believe he broke my hand (hmmm-mmmm)
[Interlude]
N.C.
Hmmm-mmmm
N.C.
Hmmm-mmmm
N.C.
Hmmm-mmmm
A
Hmmm-mmmm
[Verse 5]
A
They all call me crazy
E A
For sassing Mr. Scott
A
My brother was killed for a deed I did
E A
But I disremember what, yeah
A
Well, another boy is down
E A
The shovel burned him out (uh huh)
A
Let me stand on his body
E A
To see what the shouting's about
[Chorus]
A
I'm going to Memphis (yeah, Memphis)
A
Yeah, I'm going to Memphis
[Bridge]
A D
Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed
A
But when the levee's through and I am too
A
Let the honky-tonk roll on
E A
Come morning, I'll be gone
[Chorus]
A
I'm going to Memphis
A
Yeah, Memphis
A
(Yes Lord, Memphis-bound)
Ride this train to any county fair in this land.
Now, here's a hard-working happy people.
Ms. Jones baked the finest pie for the contest this year.
And Mr. Brown's got the biggest, fattest old sow you ever saw.
All the kids are eating popcorn and cotton candy.
This is Chester, South Carolina, and that year at the fair, my papa brought us all down in a wagon.
And on the way down, we picked up another family that lived up the creek.
I was just a little boy, but I remember I kept asking Papa, "How much farther is it? How much farther is it?"
We had a young heifer tied to the wagon that Papa just knew was gonna take first prize.
I didn't have no doubt about that heifer winning first prize, but the main thing I was interested in
was something else Papa had under his seat at the front of the wagon.
And that was an old dobro that I thought Papa played like nobody else in the world.
I guess, by real musical standards, Papa didn't know too much about music.
But I'll tell you, that night at the fair, when he played in the dance band, I just had to stay awake
and sit up there and listen to Papa play the dobro.
6.) "When Papa Played the Dobro"
[Intro]
E A
[Verse 1]
A
My Papa was a hobo when they delivered me
D A
We didn't have a doctor 'cause he couldn't pay the fee
A
But when the going got too bad to ease his misery
E A
Papa played the dobro this a-way
[Interlude]
D A
And he'd go...
E A
[Verse 2]
A
When company would come around, he kept the dobro hid
D A
He knew he couldn't play the way the other players did
A
Why, the guitar's resonator was a gallon-bucket lid
E A
But Papa played the dobro this a-way
[Interlude]
D A
And he'd go...
E A
[Verse 3]
A
Well, now that Papa's gone away, it's hanging by the flue
D A
The top of it's busted and the strings are rusty too
A
It won't ever sound the way that it did when it was new
E A
When Papa played the dobro this a-way
[Outro]
D A
And he'd go...
E A
Ride this train to Dyess, Arkansas.
See this cotton land?
Some of us are so poor now you'd have to sell 'em a sack of fertilizer to raise an umbrella.
They grade the cotton according to the length and strength of the fiber and they been raising
a lot of fair to middling grade here, which ain't good.
But there was a time... yeah, there was a time when the cotton grew tall.
Not far from here I had the finest plantation you ever saw.
About 600 acres of the finest cotton land in the country.
Now, I believe this was about 1855 and I had a bumper crop that year.
I had the best bunch of slaves you ever saw and I treated 'em right.
A lot of 'em even stayed with me after the war.
But gettin' back to what I was gonna tell you...
See, I have a rule that all the slaves got to be back in out of the fields
and accounted for by sundown every day.
And one day, when they came in, there was one short.
Well, I found out right away that it was old Uncle Moses that was missing.
And I figured something might have happened to him, old as he was.
So I went out into the cotton field to look for him.
Well, Uncle Moses was way down at the end of the road, sitting on his cotton sack.
Well, I walked up and said, "Uncle Moses, don't you know the rule that you're supposed to be punished
if you're not back in and accounted for by dark?"
And he said, "Boss Jack, I know that, sir. But I was picking along on my road and, all of a sudden,
something seemed to come over me. And the finest words started coming through my head and the finest music.
So I memorized them words and that music 'til I had it all in my head. Now that I got the song all through,
I guess, Boss Jack, I was ready to take my punishment."
Well, I didn't hardly know what to say, but I asked Uncle Moses to sing that song for me.
And he stood up there and for the first time, he sang "Swing Low Sweet Chariot".
Well, after that, I kinda laid old Uncle Moses off and let him pedal around the house.
And every night at dark, you could hear him singing, and he sang another song once in a while
that made me feel awful proud.
7.) "Boss Jack"
[Intro]
A E B7 E
[Verse 1]
A
Pick a lotta cotton, drag a long sack
B7 E
Coming across the field, well, I see Boss Jack
A
He's a-riding straddle of a single-foot roan
B7 E
When you know that horse, you'll leave him alone
A
That ole roan's got green in his eyes
B7 E
Mean as the devil and twice as wise
A
A fire in his nose and a bow in his back
B7 E N.C.
Can't nobody ride him but... Boss Jack
[Chorus]
A E
"Come on children, bend your back
B7 E
Work a little faster, fill your sack
A E
Then you hitch up the wagon, take it to the gin
B7 N.C.
Finish picking before the winter sets in"
[Interlude]
A E B7 E
[Verse 2]
A
Now, here, a while back, when the crop was laid by
B7 E
Remember who took us on a big fish fry?
A
Caught a heap of catfish, goggle-eye, and carp
B7 E
Dashed and sang to the guitar and the harp
A
Well, someday, old Boss Jack is going to set us all free
B7 E
Gabriel's gonna blow for you and me
A
Angels going to bring that chariot from above
B7 E
Flapping their wings like a turtledove
[Chorus]
A E
"Come on children, bend your back
B7 E
Work a little faster, fill your sack
A E
Then you hitch up the wagon, take it to the gin
B7 N.C.
Finish picking before the winter sets in"
[Outro]
A E B7 E
Ride this train.
Let me show you a land of rolling hills and tall corn.
A land of hard-working people where rewards are often very small.
This is Pella, Iowa.
My mother and father brought me here in 1847. We came from Cork, Ireland.
We had a potato famine over there and things had been pretty rough for us.
I remember during the potato famine in Ireland, I'd trail along at father's feet
and we'd try to find enough potatoes for a meal.
And we'd take 'em back in to mother and she'd cook 'em, coats and all.
Well, finally we gave up and somehow we made it to America.
Well, our new neighbors here in Pella loaned father oxen and ploughs to make his first crop with.
And you never saw taller corn that year than it was on our place.
The next season, why, we were even lending out ploughs and oxen to other farmers.
That's the way it was here in the new land. Everybody helped everybody else.
If you got sick, everybody came to visit.
Even the doctor wouldn't take pay if he thought you couldn't afford it.
But old Doc Brown was always there if you ever needed him.
8.) "Old Doc Brown"
[Intro]
E
[Verse 1]
A
He was just an old country doctor in a little country town
E
Fame and fortune had passed him by, though we never saw him frown
B7
As day by day in his kindly way, he served us one and all
E
Many a patient forgot to pay although Doc's fees were small
A
Though he needed his dimes and there were times that he would receive a fee
E B7
He'd pass it onto some poor soul that needed it worse than he
E
He had to sell his furniture, couldn't pay his office rent
[Verse 2]
E A
So to a dusty room over a livery stable, Doc Brown and his satchel went
E
And on the hitching post at the curb below, to advertise his wares
B7
He nailed a little sign that read, "Doc Brown has moved upstairs"
E
One day, he didn't answer when they knocked upon his door
A
Old Doc Brown was lying down, but his soul was no more
E B7
They found him there in that old black suit, on his face was a smile of content
E
But all the money they could find on him was a quarter and a copper cent
[Verse 3]
E A
So they opened up his ledger and what they saw gave their hearts a pull
E
Beside each debtor's name, old Doc had writ these words: "paid in full"
B7
Old Doc should've had a funeral fine enough for a king
E
It's a ghastly joke, our town was broke and no one could give a thing
A
'cept Jones the undertaker, he did mighty well
E
Donating an old iron casket he had never been able to sell
B7 E
And the funeral procession, it wasn't much for grace and pomp and style
[Verse 4]
E
But those wagon loads of mourners, they stretched out for more than a mile
A
We wanted to give him a monument, we kinda figured we owed him one
E
Because he'd made our town a better place for all the good he'd done
B7 E
We pulled up that old hitching post where Doc had nailed his sign
A
We'd painted it white and to all of us, it certainly did look fine
E B7
Now the rains and the snows have washed away our white trimmings of paint
E
There ain't nothing left but Doc's own sign, and that's getting pretty faint
[Outro]
E A
But you can still see that old hitching post, as if an answer to our prayers
E B7 E
Mutely telling the whole wide world, "Doc Brown has moved upstairs"
------------