“Engine 143”
Running o’er the C&O road just twenty minutes behind
Running into Cevile head porters on the line
Receiving their strict orders from a station just behind
Georgie’s mother came to him with a bucket on her arm
Saying my darling son be careful how you run
Many a man has lost his life by trying to make lost time
And if you run your engine right you’ll get there just on time
Up the road she darted against the rocks she crushed
Upside down the engine turned and Georgie’s breast did smash
His head was against the firebox door the flames were rolling high
I’m glad I was born to be an engineer on the C&O road to die
The doctor said to Georgie my darling son be still
Your life may yet be saved if it is God’s blessed will
Oh no said George that will not do I want to die so free
I want to die for the engine I love one hundred and forty three
The doctor said to Georgie your life cannot be saved
Murdered upon a railroad and laid in a lonesome grave
His face was covered up with blood his eyes you could not see
And the very last words that Georgie said was nearer my God to thee
About Johnny Cash Lyrics
Artist: Johnny Cash
Related songs: Amen Lyrics
Album: Orange Blossom Special
Release date: February 22, 1965
Label: Columbia Records
Born: February 26, 1932, Kingsland, Arkansas, United States
Died: September 12, 2003, Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Graduation date: 1950
Edited works: I Walk the Line: Very Best of Johnny Cash, MORE
Hall of fame inductions: February 8, 1960, 1977, 1992, 2011
Grandchildren: Jakob William Leventhal, Anna Maybelle Cash, MORE
Songwriting partners: June Carter Cash, Bob Dylan, MORE