Old Buddy Goodnight
(By Utah Phillips)
Chords by: Verne Garrison
Banjo Tuned E, Capo 1, Key of G
3/4 time


   G                                         C                    
I was there when they opened the boxcar, we found him stone dead on
    G 
 the floor
                                  C              G          D7
Though thumbing and bumming was all of our trade no one had seen him 
    G 
     before
                               C                      G
He wore the face of a stranger lost and unseen in the crowd
                           C               G                D7
He looked so small when we carried him down wrapped in a newspaper
 G shroud

The wind blows cold in Wyoming, the stars shine clear and bright
If you don't wake up tomorrow at all I guess it's old buddy goodnight

His hair was the color of winter, streaked with iron and coal
And all you could see in his soft prairie eyes was the wind and the 

rain and the snow
The backs of his hands were like roadmaps, the lines on his face were 

the same
And on his arm a faded tattoo, bordered a rose and a name

The wind blows cold in Wyoming, the stars shine clear and bright
If you don't wake up tomorrow at all I guess it's old buddy goodnight

Now I don't know where he came from his train was a UP freight
If there's someone waiting for him down the line, he'll be a little 

bit late
Give a line for him in your paper, here's what I want you to say
There's some things worse than dying alone, and one of them's living 

that way

The wind blows cold in Wyoming, the stars shine clear and bright
If you don't wake up tomorrow at all I guess it's old buddy goodnight