Steel Wheels on the Rail

by I, the Interlocutor

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about

My entry for the Denton Quaran-tunes thing! Finished at 11:35 last night with an 11:59 deadline!

lyrics

I first started in 73 on the clanking shifting beast
An art exhibition at 40 miles an hour F Train rolling east
Up from South Manhattan, East River cross to Queens
Decent pay and low expectations the job of my dreams
Through budget cuts and blackouts Getz and the son of Sam
Under and over the water subways and over land
An elbow out the window hand steady on the switch
Station after station without a single hitch

Let the spray cans shake
Let the radios blast
Let the city fail
I’ll keep moving steel wheels on the rail

From bullet train through Fear City to a Disney monorail
From the burning Bronx and Bankrupcy to a Giant Bloomingdales
The Yanks got good and bad then really bad then good great & okay
I carried the fans home from the World Series when the Mets won it at Shea
But there were riots and there were strikes and breakdowns on the lines
Fares went up and rides went down but evened out in time
An elbow out the window hand steady on the switch
Station after station without a single hitch

Let the neon flash
Let the tourists throng
Let the singing cowboy wail
I’ll keep moving steel wheels on the rail

Through Koch and Dinkins and Juliani some things stayed the same
Subway’s too damn hot in the summer routes slow down in the rain
The homeless and the hustlers the middle class the park avenue elites
Snaking shaking borough to borough, above and below the streets

I wasn’t underground on that clear september day
As airplanes became missiles and steel beams crumbled away
The LIRR needed to run and it’s conductor needed sleep
That and the grace of God’s the reason I’m not 6 stories deep
I still pray for the men we lost to rest their mortal souls
But even before the dust was settled those wheels still had to roll
East out of Grand Central through Flushing Meadows Park
With the gaping hole in our nation’s soul still smoking in the dark

Through hate that hurts
Through enemy attacks
Through destruction at wholesale
I’ll keep moving steel wheels on the rail

If ever I retire one fine day
I’ll tip a hat to the conductors of the MTA
Who keep moving steel wheels on the rail

credits

released May 9, 2020

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I, the Interlocutor image

I, the Interlocutor Denton, Texas

Country, Punk, Acoustic, Singer-Songwriter...but, y'know, black.

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