Monkey And The Engineer

David Rawlings Machine with Gillian Welch
Grimey's, Nashville, Tn.
12/3/09

once upon a time there was an engineer
drove a locomotive both far and near
accompanied by a monkey that would sit on a stool
watching everything the engineer would do
one day the engineer wanted a bite to eat
he left the monkey sitting on the drivers seat
the monkey pulled the throttle
the locomotive jumped the gun
and did 90 miles an hour down the mainline run
big locomotive right on time
big locomotive coming down the line
big locomotive no. 99
left the engineer with a worried mind

the engineer called up the dispatcher on the phone
to tell him all about his locomotive was gone
dispatcher got on the wire, switch operator to the right
cause the monkey's got the main line sewed up tight
the switch operator got the message on time
said there's a northbound limited on the same main line
open up the switch i'm gonna let him through the hole
cause the monkey's got the locomotive under control
big locomotive right on time
big locomotive coming down the line
big locomotive no. 99
left the engineer with a worried mind