Standard (EADGBE)

A soldier rides on a train to Tennessee,

And half asleep he dreams, it isn't a dream.

With each click of the wheels on steel, a face goes by,

With each face that he loves he turns and sighs.

Chorus

 And he's headed home

 Yes, he's headed home,

 To try and find his life again,

And to wonder what's become of them.

A young girl waving goodbye while his mother stood cryin',

With lips like honey she was lovin' him all of the time'n.

"Won't matter how long you're gone, I'll wait for you".

Now you know you were gone such a long long time.

Chorus

 And you can't go home, no you can't go home,

 Expectin' everything you knew, to be waitin' there on you.

Refrain

That train's.. movin' on down the line,

Leavin' people at every depot behind,

 And you wanna begin somewhere,

 But you remember what it like down there,

 So you move down the line. Hm-mm-mm.

Three rows back a young woman looks out the train,

Her eyes reveal that her life is desperately plain.

She's a woman who's seen this world and not touched one man,

She knows she could if she would but she can't.

Chorus

 And she's headin' home

 Yes, she's headin' home,

Back where life begins and ends,

 And they feel that you belong to them.

But there was a time that time when the time was so right,

Close enough you swear to G_d, you still smell the night.

But somehow the clock struck twelve, the ball was through,

Now here you are, could that be you?

Chorus

 Whoa you can't go on, no no you can't go on,

 Livin' safe inside your walls,

Never taste life at all.

Refrain

That train's.. movin' on down the line,

Leavin' people at every depot behind.

 You wanna begin somewhere, but you'll always take a chance out there,

 So you move down the line.Hm-mm-mm.

I sit half drunk in the dining car and observe life,

I got him pegged and I'm pretty sure I got her right.

When you've been as far as I have, you know these things,

That's the reason that it's sad and drank the drinks.

Chorus

 'Cause I got no home no, and I need no one,

 Nothing to bring pain again,

It's great just livin' on the wind.

But the woman is met by her husband there at the station,

And two stops later the soldier's girl is still waitin'.

I simply accept the fact they're just lucky, that's all,

But the fact is I don't believe they pulled it off.

Chorus

 And I can't go on no, no, I can't go on

 Making everything I see,

fit the way that it is for me.

Refrain

That train's just movin' on down the line,

Leavin' people at every depot behind.

 And you wanna begin somewhere

 But for me there's nothing true out there

 So I move down the line.Hm-mm-mm,-mm-mm.

END