Lyrics

Little old man by the railroad track
Shoveling coal with a broken back
He don’t seem to mind the pain
He’s got a berth on the midnight train
Younger man behind a desk
Keeps his silk shirts neatly pressed
Look at the way he handles stress
Ignores the freight train on his chest

Show me the way to get back home
I think I heard it once in a children’s poem
Maybe it was written on a subway train
And washed away by the jealous rain

They keep the restrooms warm and dry
In the service stations in the sky
Hush, little baby don’t you cry
I’ll soon be coming home
It’s a long hard road to the promised land
Through the bitter cold and the desert sand
The Jordan River’s deep and wide
And there’s a Texaco on the other side

Show me the way to get back home
I think I heard it once on the late late show
Maybe it was written in the virgin snow
That melted away so many years ago

Painted faces patent lies
Smoothly flowing alibis
All the things I once despised
Are fading from my view
The wolves are waiting at the ark
For the helpless sheep to disembark
They keep the boardroom cold and dark
For the comfort of the few

Show me the way to get back home
I think I heard it once on the telephone
Maybe it was written in a magazine
Maybe in an old forgotten dream

I can’t be sure, but I’ve been told
The streets in heaven are paved with gold
Some say they is, but I say they ain’t
I got a hunch it’s yellow paint
And I have heard that I've been blessed
Never had to worry 'bout second best
So tell me why I feel this way
Every day I slip further away

Show me the way to get back home
I think I heard it once in a children’s poem
It could have been a Tin Pan Alley song
But I think I got the verses awfully wrong