Phoebe Snow

I saw her name on the side of a train
Somewhere a long time ago
I don't know who she was but I gave my love
To someone called Phoebe Snow

Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
But I'd give my life to spend one more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow

I climbed on board through a wide open door
Just as she started to roll
And I rode so light through the warm summer night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow

Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
But I'd give my life to spend one more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow

I've spent many a night around the fire
In a circle of stone silent men
And heard the sagebrush whistle and pop
And the coffee boil up in the can
And the bottoms were filled with a cool river wind
The treetops chasing the moon
And I knew without asking to take my guitar
And play up some slow gentle tune

Well I played up a face I used to know
And the song was the sound of a name
And I knew without looking that every man there
Was each of them feeling the same

Then I played up some hands so pale and small
With a touch just as light as the rain
And I knew without looking that every man there
Was each of them 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, the failures of age

Then I stopped with a crash and we looked into the ash
Helpless with longing and rage

Now a traveling life might seem all right
A life without worry or care
You're always up and you're always out
You're always going somewhere
But I tell you my friends it's not where you are
But your reason for being there

Then I awoke as the day broke
And I gazed out over the plains
Thinking as how I'm better off now
From being in love with a train

Like a bird on the wing I hear a voice sing
As over the prairies I roll
But I'd give my life to spend one more night
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow