Oklahoma
Dustbowl land
Forgotten people
Empty hearts and hands
Folk were troubled
Hope was through
But one bold lady
Knew just what to do
Down
on the railroad one cold night
She
hopped on the mail train out of sight
Kept
on riding till the morning light
Railroad
Nattie’s alright
South Dakota
Real badlands
Railroad Nattie’s
Got gravel in her hands
Poor Old Nattie
She’s doing time
Gold prospecting
Down someone else’s mine
Locked
in a chain-gang buckled up tight
Digging
on the roadside day and night
Whipped
and smacked no end in sight
Railroad
Nattie’s alright
On that chain gang
Times were tough
Those leg irons
Will chafe you pretty rough
Railroad Nattie
Didn’t despair
Her hobo spirit
Took her free from there
She
clubbed both the guards in the back of the head
Whacked
and smacked till the dust ran red
Chopped
off her own feet and turned and fled
Railroad
Nattie weren’t dead
She
hobbled away on her bloody bones
Scraping
and crunching on dust and stones
But
she never gave no hollers or moans
Railroad
Nattie still roams
The train went westward
And one sunny day
Amid the orange groves
Of Californ – i – a
Railroad Nattie
She settled down
In a lonesome
Orange-picking town
But things went rough there
The fruit was bad
A blight of mealybugs
Was eating all they had
One orange farmer
Moved to say
‘Don’t hobo aroma
Scare mealybugs away?’
Yes it does
So
they grabbed poor Nattie one dark night
Stuck
in her in the ground with her pins real tight
That
hobo stink gave the bugs a fright
Railroad
Nattie’s alright
Nattie’s
on the hillside all year round
A
scarecrow stuck in the soily ground
Best
pesticide there’s ever been found
Railroad
Nattie’s alright
When she moved on
None can say
One bright morning
Nattie had gone away
Maybe to Denver
Or Mexico
She keeps on moving
So I’ll guess we’ll never know
Down
on the railroad one cold night
She
hopped on the mail train out of sight
Kept
on riding till the morning light
Railroad
Nattie’s alright
They
say that still it’s an eerie fright
To
listen for the mail train late at night
Then
sniff the wind in the cold moonlight
That’s
Railroad Nattie alright!
There’s a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road is where she’ll always be
Every stop she takes she makes a new friend
Can’t stay for long just turn around and she’s gone again
Maybe tomorrow she’ll want to settle down
Until tomorrow she’ll just keep moving on
Until tomorrow the whole world is her home