The Magnetic Fields Album

I'm never going back to jackson
I couldn't bear to show my face
I nearly killed you with my drinking
wouldn't be caught dead in that place

lonely highway, only friend
you've got me to keep you warm again
lonely highway, don't you cry
let me hold you in my arms tonight

and as I hurtle down the highway
past the factories and the graves
I think of all the years I wasted
I think of all the years I've saved

your eyes are long vermont roads
with a tacky song on the radio
and your eyes are toothless young men
in tennessee in the rain again
and the fireflies never go to sleep
and the country songs never help you sleep

but after all those trains and all those breakdown lanes
the roads don't love you and they still won't pretend to
after all those days on godforsaken highways
the roads don't love you and they still won't pretend to

your eyes are the mesa verde
big and brown and far away
and your eyes are kansas city
in kansas and in missouri

but after all this time and after all your crying
the roads don't love you and they still won't pretend to
the roads are dark and long and all those country songs
well, they don't love you and they still won't pretend to

Some roads are only seen at night.
Ghost roads, nothing but neon signs.
But some nights the neon gas gets free,
And turns into walking dead like me.

And I've been making promises I know I'll never keep.
One of these days I'm gonna leave you in your sleep.
I'll have to go when the whistle blows;
The whistle knows my name.
Baby, I was born on a train.

Well I know that you were never young--
And I know you probably won't get old--
But honey nobody's gonna hurt you anymore,
And nobody's gonna make you want to die.

And I've been making promises I know I'll never keep.
One of these days I'm gonna leave you in your sleep.
I'll have to go when the whistle blows;
The whistle knows my name.
Baby, I was born on a train.
Lyrics
I'll go some cold and gray morning,
And you won't remember anything.
But some people don't believe in dying,
And some of us don't believe in life.

And I've been making promises I know I'll never keep.
One of these days I'm gonna leave you in your sleep.
I'll have to go when the whistle blows;
The whistle knows my name.
Baby, I was born on a train.

well, we have walked in ancient times
and we've been burned for many crimes
we have ended many lives
but we never really died
you have the sun, I have the moon

you have to fly around the world all day
to keep the sun upon your face
I'd like to come and comfort you
but I'd be blinded by the blue
you have the sun, I have the moon

you're bound to die under the sun
and I'll be doomed to carry on
you have become like other men
but let me kiss you once again
you have the sun, I have the moon

you were just like me, you were one big bruise
in the game of life you were playing to lose
you were jesse james, I was william tell
you were daniel webster, I was the devil himself

two characters in search of a country song
just make-believe but so in love
two characters been listening all night long
for voices from nashville above

hell on eighteen wheels at a hundred per
we went crashing through the jersey barrier
but the road went on over dale and hill
you were calamity jane and I was wild bill...

sometimes the road is too long
you meet all kinds of people
some of them cast no shadow
they have no reflections
take a look in your photobook
I'm not there anymore

I was a traveling salesman
I got lost on the backroads
fell in with a crowd of drifters
sometimes the sun is too bright
and it burns you like acid
you get to love driving at night
the moon is so close, you can kiss it

I used to remember you smiling and waving
I don't think I can anymore
we come, unnoticed, at sundown
at the start of a blackout
we set bonfires all over town
and it's over by morning

sometimes we bring the rat and the wolf
and sometimes the worm

it was the army train that took her daddy from her
it was the bible train that took her momma, too
and that high loud whistle made her horse run away
but the straw the broke the camel's back was you

it was the government train that took away her childhood
it was the kkk that took away her past
it was the white man's will that hers be broken
but that barefoot girl could run too fast

because the world's too cold for a girl like that
with a blackfoot soul, and a cowboy hat
everything she loved went down the dragon track
she had a fear of trains

In the beet fields of montana
she's always coming on dead rails
to break the plow and whisper:
"honey, bound to live is bound to fail,"
and in a park in san francisco
her momma shrieks about the lord
and down the dead rails there's an echo
the wind is whistling "all aboard!"

it was the wagon train that took away her country
it was the oil train that took away her land
and she could have been the belle of the ponderosa
but that was not the fat man's plan

time, measured in dotted yellow lines, has passed you by
and I never said an honest thing to you in all my life
hard times go slowly and the good times never come
the world is a motor inn in an iowa highway slum

when the open road is closing in
and you can't say where it ends and you begin
when every truck stop dive's another five years off your life
when the open road is closing in
and the dotted yellow lines begin to spin
and the sky begins to fall on everything you like at all
you won't be coming home again
ciao

you keep on drowning in the roads between the towns
and now I have been closing all the shutters in the house
well, I know you'll be back when every tree is turning brown
you'll find the house is empty and the swing set's fallen down

well, I don't care what people say
life is too short to hang around
so I stay so long in a place
and then move on to the next town

oh, sunset city
I've gotta see the world
don't hold me too tightly
don't whisper my name
sad-eyed baby, I'm not that kind of girl
when the dice stop rolling, there's no more to the game
when the time comes to say goodbye...

and in the morning, I'll be gone
for other towns and other lives
I'll catch the first train, bag in hand
and I won't miss you
and you won't cry

[instrumental]