Merle Haggard — The Coming and the Going of the Trains

[Verse] I am just an Indian and once this was my land Now it's been taken from me by the coming of the white man And the anger makes my blood run hot and heavy in my veins Every time I think about the coming of the trains [Verse] The day was hot and dusty in the year of '69 As we heard a whistle blowing somewhere down the line That was the year I rode with Frank and Jesse James As we waited for the coming and the going of the trains [Verse] The drought hit West Texas and the ground was cracked and dry We just had to have some water or our crops would surely die The railroad shipped us water till we finally got some rain And I thank God for the coming and the going of the trains [Verse] I lived behind these iron bars, I'm a prisoner doing time And I've heard that midnight freight pass at least a thousand times And I spent my time a-walking to the door and back again And marking down the coming and the going of the trains [Verse] I've always been an engineer and trains are all I know Now they don't want me anymore and they say that I'm too old But my cabin at the crossing sort of helps to ease my pain For I just had to feel the coming and the going of the trains [Verse] The trucks and planes are faster now and the railroad is too slow And they just came and told me that my railroad has to go The hands that built the railroad through sweat, blood and pain Will sign the final papers of the going of the train [Outro] And I have seen the coming and the going of the trains