Utah Phillips - Frisco Road

standin' here in the breakdown lane, I don't think I'll make it today
and I wish the road was a big freight train just blowin' and rollin' my way
I know the rain wouldn't seem so cold on top of an old box car
wherever it was I was trying to go, it wouldn't seem half so far

I remember the roper yard cafe and a pretty little beanery queen
she gave those jailhouse spuds away to a bum she'd never seen
well I tipped her with a couple of rhymes on the back of place mat there
and I've thought about her plenty of times when I couldn't bum a square

or the time we rode on a piggyback punchin' the great divide
the blowin' snow it iced the track and the train got stuck inside
the diesel fumes they got so thick I thought we'd all be gassed
but they sanded her out just in the nick and punched her through at last

now I don't claim to be too proud to shag a ride on my thumb
but I'd trade this whole hitchhikin' crowd for an honest old railroad bum
and if there ever comes a day when the rails have gone to rust
I'll put my jug and bindle away just to give up in disgust

beyond these gentle eastern hills, a soft new england sky
where the highball whistles echo still, where the mile long blazers fly
sittin' here by the tole road gates I wonder as I rest
if the heavy, clanking, lonely freights still thunder way out west

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Utah
• Phillips
• Frisco
• Road
• Railroad
• Folk

[Canoe571]

Thanks for posting this old Utah classic. Come to think of it, what did he do that wasn't a classic? Sure miss that old guy.

[ImJimHill]

This song was on my mind today, but I couldn't remember parts. So glad someone had it posted. Thanks!