I learned this song from my mom, Ruth Rappaport, and from The Chicken Chokers. Versions of it exist across Appalachia, though the earliest report of it that I've read about is attributed to two Black singers in Florence County, South Carolina in 1905 (see Norm Cohen's book, Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong).
lyrics
Reuben had a train.
He went from England to Spain.
He never got no letters from his ma.
Oh me, oh Lordy my.
He never got no letters from his ma.
Well Reuben went to town
and the police shot him down.
You could hear the poor boy holler a hundred miles.
You could hear the poor boy holler.
You could hear the poor boy yell.
You could hear the poor boy holler a hundred miles.
Reuben had a wreck.
Lord, he broke his frickin' neck.
His poor body ain't never been found.
Well they found his head in the driver's wheel
about a mile and a half from town.
If you don't believe I'm gone
watch the train that I crawl on.
I'm 900 miles from my home.
I'm 900 miles from my wife and my child.
I wish I was 900 more.
If my lover tells me so
I won't moonshine no more.
I'll cut down that still and go home.
Oh me, oh Lordy my.
I'll cut down that still and go home.
Said the hobo to the bum
You got some cocaine give me some.
I believe great God I'm coming down.
Oh me, oh Lordy my.
I believe great God I'm coming down.
Well I took my razor blade,
I laid Reuben in the shade.
Going to start me a graveyard of my own.
Oh me, oh Lordy my.
Going to start me a graveyard of my own.
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