Homeless Jack

A thousand thoughts word for word he recalls
how he'd wake to the whistles of them steam engines yawning
Clackety-clack goes the old train track
where Homeless Jack tells them same old stories
how he used to live with these two fugitives
that he'd stone-faced insist were just a couple of lovers
he said they'd sleep 'neath the bridge, stay up all night drinking with him
and when the cops finally came in he said they cuffed everyone of us

Law put his face in their office, they said he was an accomplice
for the ill-gotten profits of robbing the trains
they said he went through the carriages, through suitcases and packages
of the unsuspecting passengers and they changed his name
to Bad Jack of the Tracks

Jack tried to quell his reputation, he moved up out of the station,
took cheap work at the plantation under a different name
but when Industrials arrived buying all the land they could find
they bled his plantation dry and they cancelled his wage
him and his friends that he made there, they jumped on the railway
for years on days on nights they rode
on charity's wine, 'cross almost every line
jack and his old friends still ride right under old John Law's nose

He sleeps on the sheets of the grass on the banks by the rails
spends his days with his band of runaways and renegades swapping tales
of how they've all been cheated - how they're all down but none of them are beaten
and how this Friday night is gonna blow last Friday night away

'Cos on a Friday night they all blag their way into these bars
and they dance so hard it breaks your heart
they take their shoes off and dance with the girls barefeet
and we buy them drink 'cos they've had it so hard
He spoils these old ladies, and them beautiful young girls
and they love him back
Homeless Jack