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An American folk song written by Elizabeth Cotten as a teenager (sometime between 1906 and 1912), inspired by the sound of the trains rolling in on the tracks near her home in North Carolina
after the Jerry Garcia / David Grisman version
Freight Train
by Elizabeth Cotten
(Chorus
[D] Freight train, freight train, [A7] running so fast
[A7] Freight train, freight train, [D] running so fast
[F#m] Please don't tell what [G] train I'm on
so they [D] won't know [A7] where I’ve [D] gone)
When I'm dead and in my grave
No more good times here I crave
Place the stones at my head and feet
And tell them all I've gone to sleep
Chorus
When I die, oh bury me deep
Down at the end of old Chestnut Street
So I can hear old Number Nine
As she comes rolling by
Chorus
When I die, oh bury me deep
Down at the end of old Chestnut Street
Place the stones at my head and feet
And tell them all I've gone to sleep
Chorus
Freight train, freight train, run so fast
Freight train, freight train, run so fast
Please don't tell what train I'm on
They won't know what route I'm going
[D] Freight train, freight train, [A7] running so fast
[A7] Freight train, freight train, [D] running so fast
[F#m] Please don't tell what [G] train I'm on
so they [D] won't know [A7] where I’ve [D] gone)
When I'm dead and in my grave
No more good times here I crave
Place the stones at my head and feet
And tell them all I've gone to sleep
Chorus
When I die, oh bury me deep
Down at the end of old Chestnut Street
So I can hear old Number Nine
As she comes rolling by
Chorus
When I die, oh bury me deep
Down at the end of old Chestnut Street
Place the stones at my head and feet
And tell them all I've gone to sleep
Chorus
Freight train, freight train, run so fast
Freight train, freight train, run so fast
Please don't tell what train I'm on
They won't know what route I'm going