Texas 1947 by Guy Clark
Key: EmEm | Capo: 0fr |  Left-Handed 

    


Em 
Now bein' six years old 
    G 
I'd seen some trains before, 
        A 
so it's hard to figure out 
         B            Em 
what I'm at the depot for. 
 
 
Em 
Trains are big and black and smokin' steam, 
G 
screamin' at the wheels, 
A 
bigger than anything there is, 
         B                  Em 
at least that's the way she feels 
 
 
           B 
Trains are big and black and smokin', 
 
louder than July four, 
    A 
but everybody's actin' like 
     B                  Em 
this might be somethin' more... 
 
 
Em 
...than just pickin' up the mail 
       G 
or the soldiers from the war, 
        A 
this is somethin' that even old man Wileman (?) 
B             Em 
never seen before. 
 
Bridge: 
         F#m 
And it's late afternoon 
 
on a hot Texas day, 
                     A 
somethin' strange is goin' on  
         B          Em 
and we's all in the way. 
 
 
Em 
Well there's fifty or sixty people 
          G 
they're just sittin' on their cars, 
        A 
and the old men left their dominoes 
         B                  Em 
and they come down from the bars. 
 
 
Em 
Everybody's checkin', 
         G 
old Jack Kittrel(?) checked his watch, 
       A 
and us kids put our ears 
       B                 Em 
to the rails to hear 'em pop. 
 
 
   B 
So we already knowed 
 
when they finally said 'train time' 
        A 
you'd a-thought that Jesus Christ himself 
    B                Em 
was rollin' down the line. 
 
 
Em 
Cuz things got real quiet, 
G 
Momma jerked me back, 
A 
not before I'd got the chance 
         B             Em 
to lay a nickel on the track. 
 
 
Chorus: 
 
E 
Look out here she comes, she's comin', 
A 
Look out there she goes, she's gone, 
B 
screamin' straight through Texas 
       A         E 
like a mad dog cyclone. 
B 
Big, red, and silver, 
 
she don't make no smoke, 
        A 
she's a fast-rollin' streamline 
B                E 
come to show the folks. 
E 
Look out here she comes, she's comin' 
A 
Look out there she goes, she's gone, 
B 
screamin' straight through Texas 
       A         E 
like a mad dog cyclone. 
 
 
 
Em 
...Lord, she never even stopped. 
 
 
 
Em 
She left fifty or sixty people 
      G 
still sittin' on their cars, 
            A 
and they're wonderin' what it's comin' to 
    B               Em 
and how it got this far. 
 
 
Em 
Oh but me I got a nickel smashed 
G 
flatter than a dime 
     A 
by a mad dog, runaway 
    B             Em 
red-silver streamline...train