Ralph McTell — Wagon on the Motorway

Driving on the motorway I saw a truck ahead of me And in it was a young girl and her fellow They were coming from the west And she had a baby on her breast And the truck was painted bright in mauve and yellow That steering wheel held in a grip As tight as the roll-up on his lip They never even gave me a single look As she dreamed out at the fields Whilst the baby took its meal And I surveyed the scene as I overtook The road was a ball of string they were unravelling Looping words to the story they were travelling Well, I saw him clench his jaw As his left foot hit the floor And the road was steep and he changed down a gear And he glanced at his girl and child And she turned from the window and smiled And she fingered a lock of hair behind her ear And all they owned was in that truck And I thought about us and wished them luck Continuing the journey they'd begun It was just like yours and mine A little further back in time The pots and pans in a van with a baby son The road was a ball of string they were unravelling Looping words to the story they were travelling Now, even wild birds sometimes need Garden crumbs with their hedgerow seed Watching out for foxes, stoats and weasels One thing a fuel gauge cannot show How far your new-age dream will go Freedom's more than just the price of diesel And I could not help but wonder When the sky is black with thunder Incessant rain and wind and freezing fog Is freedom's scent as sweet as those Wood smoke saturated clothes Slack skinned bongo drums and a smelly dog Spring comes with the celandine And baby's teeth and she stops crying And life's a neutral rolling downhill ride As if a fortune you'd been paid When first you sell something you've made There's the first warm night that you sleep outside In my rear view mirror their truck grew small Until no sign of them remained at all And my route was a clear direction home The road was a ball of string they were unravelling Looping words to the story they were travelling And the road was a ball of string they were unravelling Looping words to the story they were travelling