"WAIL OF THE COPPERAS COVE JAIL"

Words and Music by:
JOHN ROBERT MALLERNEE
Sunday 12 January 1975

VERSE # 01:
Born along
Santa Fe tracks
In a tent among
Coal miner's shacks,
He was the eighth
Hungry mouth
In a family to feed.
He roamed before
He could walk
And he sang before
He could talk,
With that combination
To tell the
World of his need.

CHORUS:
So, roll on
Santa Fe Rail.
Take me from
Copperas Cove Jail.
With an old
Used guitar
In an empty boxcar,
A hungry poor
Hobo can wail.

VERSE # 02:
His father consumed
By his drink,
He grew up
On poverty's brink.
By the time
He was ten,
His family had split
Far and wide.
He wasn't
Wanted around.
So, he followed
That far away sound
Of a Santa Fe
Train calling out
To his dreams
Deep inside.

VERSE # 03:
He met his
True love at sixteen,
A red headed lass
Named Maureen,
The child of
A prosperous
Man of position
In town.
With no one around,
They had fun
'Til he'd kiss her
"Goodnight!"
And then run
To play his guitar
In a sleazy saloon
Called, "Sundown".

VERSE # 04:
One day, her
Father caught him.
His gun made
His business
Look grim.
He wanted the boy
To leave town
And never come back.
In anger, the boy
Pulled a knife
And stabbed the man,
Taking his life.
He's lost everything
And the future
Is sure looking black.