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includes fiddle by Sam Morgan, Slide guitar by Zan McLeod, harmony and back up by Tim Noah and Tramaine Harris

lyrics

Passenger #2
Chorus
I am a passenger on the last train
Of a disappearing Railway
You got to ride. You got to ride. You got to ride

Well, I was southbound, I caught a slow freight
I jumped right through that box car door
And there were polar bears among the old men
Playing cards down on the boxcar floor

It was a quiet game, the stakes were very high
The old men played to win, the bears just played for food
They said, “The seals are gone. There is no ice flow.
We had to pack our grip and move along”

The ocean boulevard, a crowded shipping lane
The gray whale taught her calf to breach
Done in by sonar waves, the whales ran aground
And slowly died upon that beach

And at the funeral the blue whale spoke his mind. He said,
“I’m searching for a wholesome meal
I’ll work for sandwiches. I’ll work for plankton.
I dream of deep seas filled with krill”

Out where the rocky streams fall down the mountainside
Bears wade in and salmon spawn
Our bodies fed the young, then came the concrete dam
Made it hard for fish to carry on

Just one kind favor the salmon ask of you
Now that you know, now that you’ve seen
It’s been a part of life, been there for centuries
“See that my birthplace and grave are kept clean.”

And there were Mergansers, and there were Murrelets
All riding on that southbound freight
And some were very weak, and some were black with oil
And for some the rescue came too late

“Where are we going?” asked the old penguin,
“I have never traveled South before”
“We are not going far,” answered the eagle.
We are all riding in that final car
© John W. McClure, 2009

credits

from Cowboys On The Skyline, released August 1, 2011
J.W. McClure

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J.W. McClure Seattle, Washington

J.W. McClure lives in Stanwood, Washington. This is a career restarted for me. In the 1970’s I was often an opening act at the Washington D.C. clubs, The Cellar Door and The Childe Harold for Tom Paxton, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Rush and many well known bands. In the 1980’s I returned to Washington to do folk music, satire and stand-up comedy before getting swamped by family and other work. ... more

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