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lyrics

Long Track Blues
Poem Sterling A. Brown. Music Cornelius Eady

Went down to the yards
To see the signal lights come on;
Looked down the track
Where my lovin’ baby done gone.

Red light in my block,
Green light down the line;
Lawdy, let yo’ green light
Shine down on that babe o’ mine.

Heard a train callin’
Blowin’ long ways down the track;
Ain’t no train due here,
Baby, what can bring you back?

Brakeman tell me
Got a powerful ways to go;
He don’t know my feelin’s
Baby, when he talkin’ so.

Lanterns a-swingin’;
An’ a long freight leaves the yard;
Leaves me here, baby,
But my heart it rides de rod.

Sparks a flyin;
Wheels rumblin’ wid a might roar;
Then the red tail light
And the place gets dark once more.

Dog in the freight room
Howlin’ like he los’ his mind;
Might howl myself
If I was the howlin’ kind.

Norfolk and Western,
Baby, and the C. & O;
How come they treat
A hardluck feller so?

Red light in my block,
Green light down the line;
Lawdy, let yo’ green light
Shine down on that babe o’ mine.

credits

from THE STERLING BROWN PROJECT: CORNELIUS EADY & ROUGH MAGIC with Rowan Ricardo Phillips, released January 18, 2021
Robin Messing: Lead Vocal
CE: Vocal
Charlie Rauh: Electric guitar
Emma Alabaster: Electric bass
Leo Ferguson: Drums and Horn Loops

Track Arranged by Rough Magic

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Cornelius Eady New York, New York

Cornelius Eady is the author of 8 books of poetry, lives in NYC and is the co-founder of Cave Canem. The band Rough Magic came out of the sessions for his CD/Chapbook BOOK OF HOOKS. (Kattywompus Press, Jan. 2013)

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