Telegraph Road
A long time ago came a man on a trackWalking thirty miles with a sack on his backAnd he put down his load where he thought it was the bestHe made a home in the wilderness
He built a cabin and a winter storeAnd he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shoreAnd the other travelers came walking down the trackAnd they never went further and they never went back
Then came the churches then came the schoolsThen came the lawyers then came the rulesThen came the trains and the trucks with their loadsAnd the dirty old track was the telegraph road
Then came the mines - then came the oreThen there was the hard times then there was a warTelegraph sang a song about the world outsideTelegraph road got so deep and so wideLike a rolling river...
And my radio says tonight it's gonna freezePeople driving home from the factoriesThere's six lanes of trafficThree lanes moving slow...
I used to like to go to work but they shut it downI've got a right to go to work but there's no work here to be foundYes, and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owedWe're gonna have to reap from some seed that's been sowed
And the birds up on the wires and the telegraph polesThey can always fly away from this rain and this coldYou can hear them singing out their telegraph codeAll the way down the telegraph road
You know I'd sooner forget but I remember those nightsWhen life was just a bet on a race between the lightsYou had your head on my shoulder you had your hand in my hairNow you act a little colder like you don't seem to care...
But believe in me baby and I'll take you awayFrom out of this darkness and into the dayFrom these rivers of headlights these rivers of rainFrom the anger that lives on these streets with these names'Cos I've run every red light on memory laneI've seen desperation explode into flamesAnd I don't wanna see it again...
From all of these signs saying sorry but we're closedAll the way down the telegraph road