Lyrics
[Verse 1]
High unto the mountains and the mines he bore,
To load his train with slag and ore.
Then haul down unto the port and town,
Where gathered people not with frown,
For they knew not the toil and strife,
With which his train had brought them life.
[Pre-chorus]
Within those towns he'd rest a day,
And watch the children laugh and play.
But to his heart the tracks called upon,
And once again he must haul on.
[Chorus]
So with a whistle and a wave up high,
Oh, Rollin' Roman just kept rollin' right on by.
[Verse 2]
From east to west, there and back,
He'd haul up and down that track.
From the crack of dawn till the sun was gone,
And through the night, he'd still push on.
Across the plains his lantern shone,
To lands where none had gone.
[Pre-chorus]
Through the blazing heat and frigid snow,
There was no place he would not go.
Through the soot and steam his smile would gleam,
As he crossed over brook and stream.
[Chorus]
Above his eye, the open sky,
Oh, Rollin' Roman just kept rollin' right on by.
[Bridge]
Some days he'd yearn to leave behind the toil and the strife,
To settle down and find himself a wife.
But such was simply not his life,
For on that train of his he's always home,
Upon those tracks he's free to roam,
Free from confines of towns unknown.
[Pre-chorus]
Where folk would say he'd only haul away to earn his pay,
Though they didn't know him well, I say.
For that man's pay was but the day,
When on that train he'd get to stay.
[Chorus]
Not caring bout the words they'd try,
Oh, Rollin' Roman just kept rollin' right on by.
[Instrumental]
[Instrumental]
[Verse 3]
In the evenings with the scorching sunset to his back.
He knew that there would be no turning back,
Until he'd come upon that old switch track,
At the end of the line, where nobody goes,
On the plains where it would seem that time has froze.
[Pre-chorus]
And down beneath that crimson sky,
He'd look out and watch his life pass by,
Just as the wind blows through the grass so high,
[Final chorus]
Bound to the track until the day he'd die,
Oh, Rollin' Roman just kept rollin' right on by.
