Living In The Country Lyrics - Arlo Guthrie

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