Daddy, what's a train?
Is it something i can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
...well how could I explain?
when my little boy and girl ask me,
Daddy, what's a train?
When I was just a boy,
and livin' by the track,
Us kids would gather up the coal, in big ol' gunny sacks
Then we heard the mornin' sound as the train pulled into view,
The engineer would smile and wave as she went rolling through
She blew so loud and clear, we had to cover up our ears
And we counted cars just as high as we could go
I can almost hear the steam, those big old drivers scream -
Sounds my little kids will never know.
Daddy, what's a train?
Is it something i can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
...well how could I explain?
when my little boy and girl ask me,
Daddy, what's a train?
I guess the times have changed, kids are different now -
Cause some don't even seem to know that milk come from a cow!
My little boy can tell the names of all the baseball stars,
I remember how I memorized the names on railroad cars...
The Wabash and the TP, Lackawanna, the IC,
The Nickel Plate and the good ol' Santa Fe.
Just names out of the past, I guess they're fading fast,
Every time I hear my little boy say -
Daddy, what's a train?
Is it something i can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
...well how could I explain?
when my little boy and girl ask me,
Daddy, what's a train?
We climbed into the car, drove down into town,
Right up to the depot house, but no one was around.
We searched the yard together, for something I could show,
But I knew there hadn't been a train for a dozen years or so.
All the things I did, when I was just a kid,
How far away those memories appear!
I guess it's plain to see they still mean a lot to me -
Because my ambition was to be an engineer.
Daddy, what's a train?
Is it something i can ride?
Does it carry lots of grown up folks and little kids inside?
Is it bigger than our house?
...well how could I explain?
when my little boy and girl ask me,
Daddy, what's a train?
Une de mes préférées de son album "all abord!", le dernier qu'il a fait avant de perdre la vie. Tout l'album est dédié a son amour des trains, souvent coloré par une tristesse sur leur disparition du paysage états-unien.