In the evening of the day down in Mobile, Alabama,
Working on the railroad with the steel driving hammer.
Gotta get some money, buy some brand new shoes,
Gotta find somebody, got to lose these blues.
"She don't love me" hear me singing in the sun,
She better leave me 'til my work is all done.
In the evening of the day, when the sun is sinking low,
All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow.
Sitting in a teepee built out on the track,
Rolling bones 'til the foreman comes back.
Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about,
We've got an off-schedule train comin' two miles out.
Everybody's scrambling and running around,
Picking up their money, take the teepee down.
Foreman wants to panic, 'bout to go insane,
Trying to get the workers out the way of the train.
Engineer blowin' his whistle loud and long,
He can't stop the train, gotta let it roll on.