In the heat of the day

Down in Mobile Alabama

Working on the railroad

With the steel-driving hammer

I gotta make some money

To buy some brand new shoes

Tryin' to find somebody

To take away my blues

"She don't love me"

Hear them singing in the sun

Payday's coming when my work is all done

Well, then in the evening when the sun is sinking low

All day, I been waiting for the whistle to blow

Sitting in a teepee built right on the tracks

Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back

Pick up your belongings, scatter about

We've got an off-schedule train comin' two miles out

Everybody's scrambling, jumping around

Picking up their money

Tearing the teepee down

Foreman's in a panic

'Bout to go insane

Trying to get the workers out the way of this train

Engineer blowin' the whistle loud and long

Can't stop the train, have to, let it roll on