(Traditional)

You know the guitar came to Europe with the gypsies 700 years ago
Spain brought the guitar to Mexico 400 years ago
U.S.A. picked a quarrel with Mexico and got Texas and California
And it also got the guitar and the guitar got us
It was Afro American people in the south
That worked out this way of playing it though
You know in Europe they usually play a guitar
But the Afro American peple worked out a way to play it
Just like a drum band

The base strings were played by a thumb with a steady beat
And the top strings were played
With the finger and got all the little off beats
Up in Syracuse there's a 92 year old woman
Who wrote a song, which some of you may know
She plays it, who knows it?

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast
Freight train, freight train goin' so fast
Please don't tell them which train I'm on
So they won't know which route I've gone

When I die just bury me deep
Down at the foot of old Chestnut Street
So I can hear old number nine
As she goes roaring by
Freight train, freight train goin' so fast
Freight train, freight train goin' so fast
Please don't tell them which train I'm on
So they won't know which route I've gone

When I'm dead and in my grave
No more good times do I crave
Place the tombstone at my head and my feet
Tell my friends that I've gone to sleep

Freight train, freight train goin' so fast
Freight train, freight train goin' so fast
Please don't tell them which train I'm on
So they won't know which route I've gone