Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: David Nelson
A Hunter/Nelson song first played by the New Riders of the Purple Sage
in April 2008. This is my first stab at the lyrics:
Melancholy [laid low]
[Sold upon the wave]
Moaning at my window
I can hear it sing
Steaming down a cold track
Sleeping in a coal sack
[?] applejack
Done me wrong
Solitary song
Up to meet the dawn
Ghost train blues
Baby, all night long
Sing it to the moon
Sing it to the stars
Sing it to a hundred
Haunted hell-bound box cars
Riding on the ghost train, woo-ooh
Tracks made of blue flame, woo-ooh
[?] in a cold rain
Listening to it pour
I don't want to ride this ghost train
Any more
Ghost man switch man
[Making a moose]
Northbound, southbound
Here's the [shoes]
Got no blanket for my poor tattoos
And no darn music for the ghost train blues
Listen to that wolf wail
Thunder clap and black hail
Enough to make my nerve fail
All night long
Step before the dawn
There to meet the day
No one here to help
But they're helping anyway
Solitary song
Stand before the dawn
Ghost train blues
Baby, all night long
Sing about forever
A moment at a time
Riding on that ghost train
Mortuary line
Riding on the ghost train, woo-ooh
Tracks made of blue flame, woo-ooh
[Moaning in the pouring] rain
Listening to it pour
I ain't gonna ride this ghost train
Any more