Utah Phillips - Phoebe Snow

      
 
 Phoebe Snow
 Starlight On the Rails
 November 15, 2008
 Banjo tuned E Capo 1, Key D
 
 
   D                    G          D   
 I saw her name, on the side of a train
                        A7 
 Somewhere a long time ago
      D                  
 I don't know who she was
      G                  D        A7          D  
 But I gave my name to someone called Phoebe Snow
 
         G                     D            
 Like a bird on the wing, I hear voice sing,
                        A7  
 As over the prairies I roll
                          G                  
 But I'd give my life to spend one more night
         D         A7          D  
 In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow
 
                       G                D   
 I climbed on board through a wide open door
                        A7   
 Just as she started to roll,
       D                G                  D      
 And I rode so light through the long summer night
                   A7          D   
 In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow.
 (chorus)
 
 (spoken)
 Many a night I've sat by the fire
 In a circle of stone silent men,
 And heard the sagebrush whistle and pop
 And the coffee boil in the can.
 
         D                G                 D  
 The bottoms were filled with a cool river wind
                             A7   
 And the treetops chasing the moon
       D                G             D     
 And I knew without saying to take my guitar
                  A7           D   
 And play up some slow gentle tune.
 
                     G           D 
 I played up a face I knew long ago
                                A7    
 And the song was the sound of a name,
      D          G                    D     
 I knew without looking that every man there
                  A7         D   
 Was each of them doing the same.
 
                       G                  D   
 Then I played up some hands so pale and small
                              A7   
 With a touch as light as the rain,
         D                G                 D   
 And I knew without looking that every man there
                A7            D   
 Was each of 'em feeling the same.
 
 Then I played up the booze and the holes in the shoes
 Of a man whose life is a cage,
 And all the things done to make a man run,
 The hard luck and failures of age -
 Then I stopped with a crash - we looked into the ash,
 Helpless with longing and rage.
 
 Now a traveling life might seem all right,
 A life without worry or care;
 Always up and always out and always going somewhere,
 But I'll tell you, friend-it's not where you are
 But your reason for being there.
 
 (sung)D G D
 And then I awoke as the day broke,
                          A7  
 And gazed out over the plain,
     D               G          D  
 Thinking as how I'm better off now
            A7         D    
 Being in love with a train.
 (chorus)