Chords for Tony Rice & Norman Blake - Green Light On The Southern - 1989

that I wrote [B] a while back.
It's a [F#] railroad song.
_ [B] _
A little old story goes along with it.
I always try not to relate.
It was in 1925.
There was a man named Fairfax Harrison, a gentleman [C] farmer from Virginia.
[E] [Bm] And he was president of [C#] the Southern Railroad.
He made a trip to England [A] and _ [E]
[B] he liked some locomotives that he saw running [E] over town in Great Britain.
They were painted green and gold and [B] trimmed out in gold leaf.
And he came back to this country [D] and he ordered six to go into service on the five branch lines of the Southern Railroad.
_ _ [B] _
I was [E] raised up alongside a branch line called the AGS or the [F#] Alabama Great [E] Southern.
This song is kind of about that and I've lost my vocal [B] in the monitor there I think.
Somehow.
[F#] _ _
I don't know.
[F#] Yeah, that might be my [B] end better right there.
That [E]
might be it.
_ _ I call it the green light on the Southern. _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [F#] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Standing on the side [B] track at the South [E] end of town.
[B] On a dry, [E] dusty August [B] day, the steam pipe blowing down.
[E]
The fireman with a long oar of [B] canoiling the old [E] valve gear.
Waiting for the fast mail [B] train to the center of [E] Forty Clare. _ _ _
The engineer in the old high [F#] cab, his gold watch [E] in his hand.
_ Looking at the water [B] glass and looking down the sand.
[C#] _ [E] Rolling out on the old main [G#] line, taking [B] up [E] his flag.
Gone today, but so they [B] say tomorrow [E] he'll be back.
_ _ Oh, if I [B] _
could [E] _ return to [A] those _ forlorn [B] days of mine. _
_ And the green light on the Southern, Southern _ Railroad [E] line. _ _ _ _
_ _ [F#] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [F#] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Creeping down the rusty [C#] rails of a bleacher [E] on branch line.
The section houses gray and [B] white, but the yard's in its time.
[E] The hoggers call the old high [B] falls, no more [E] time to waste.
Rolling down the Birmingham [B] of the tin car [E] logo freight.
_ _ _ The whistle strings of the Hissop [F#] steam, the [E] headlight gleams clear.
The drivers roll on the green and the gold, [B] getting embodied in.
_ [E] Handing up the [B] orders to the engine crew [E] on time.
It's the Alabama great Southern _ [B] AGM's railroad [E] line. _
Oh, if I [B] _ _ [E] could return _ [A] to those [C#] forlorn days [B] of [F#] mine.
_ [E] And the green light on the Southern, [F#] Southern [B] Railroad [E] line.
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ _ [F#] _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ [E] _ _ Oh, if I could return to those forlorn days of mine. _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _