Bobryanmusic.com: The Tracks

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Have you ever seen the prairie south of Broken Bow, Nebraska? That's some empty space. Ever met yourself in the middle of nowhere? That's fairly spooky, too. The body of this one was written fairly quickly in 1984, but it took a while to pull the edges together.

I met a man down in St. Clair county,
He said his name was Texas Jim.
And if any man ever needed
to hear some good news quickly,
Well, I guess that man was him.
He had a face like the years of hard times
When no rain came at all.
And he had eyes just as wide and empty
As the prairie south of Broken Bow, Nebraska,
in the fall.
And all that passed between us only served to show me
How this life can take a man
And turn him into something bitter, slowly.

He eyed me hard when I asked a question
About what life had brought his way,
About the war and the Great Depression,
You know, the more he talked about it,
the more he seemed to fade away.
His brother lived out in Bullhead City,
They hadn't talked in twenty years.
He'd had a wife that was young and pretty,
But they lost two boys to fever, and he lost that girl to tears.
And when she passed away,
he couldn't find too much worth holding,
He said, "Life's just like a railroad train . . .
Ain't too much can stop it, once it's rolling."
( But this train goes nowhere . . . goes nowhere on its own,
This train goes nowhere without a hand to guide it home. )

He'd hung his hat on a misconception.
It took its toll on him in time.
He said, " There ain't no right direction.
And I don't need no one preachin' about the way that should be mine."
Then he said, " Leave me where you find me."
He said " Good luck to you, boy . . .
But two things I have left behind me
Are the dreams of gettin' somewhere, and the hope of finding joy."
He just shook his head a bit and looked away the harder,
He said, " All I need's a railroad train, headed for the Arizona border."
(But, this train goes nowhere . . . goes nowhere on it's own.
This train goes nowhere without a hand to guide it home.)