Phoebe Snow
by: Utah Phillips
Starlight On the Rails
Chords tabbed by:  Verne Garrison
November 15, 2008
Banjo tuned E Capo 1, Key D



  D                    G          D
I saw her name, on the side of a train
                       A7
Somewhere a long time ago
     D                  
I don't know who she was
     G                  D        A7          D         
But I gave my name to someone called Phoebe Snow
      
        G                     D              
Like a bird on the wing, I hear voice sing,
                       A7
As over the prairies I roll
                         G
But I'd give my life to spend one more night
        D         A7          D
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow

                      G                D
I climbed on board through a wide open door
                       A7
Just as she started to roll,
      D                G                  D
And I rode so light through the long summer night
                  A7          D
In the arms of my own Phoebe Snow.
(chorus)

(spoken)
Many a night I've sat by the fire
In a circle of stone silent men,
And heard the sagebrush whistle and pop
And the coffee boil in the can.

        D                G                 D
The bottoms were filled with a cool river wind
                            A7
And the treetops chasing the moon
      D                G             D
And I knew without saying to take my guitar
                 A7           D
And play up some slow gentle tune.
   
                    G           D
I played up a face I knew long ago
                               A7
And the song was the sound of a name,
     D          G                    D     
I knew without looking that every man there
                 A7         D
Was each of them doing the same.

                      G                  D
Then I played up some hands so pale and small
                             A7
With a touch as light as the rain,
        D                G                 D
And I knew without looking that every man there
               A7            D
Was each of 'em feeling the same.

Then I played up the booze and the holes in the shoes
Of a man whose life is a cage,
And all the things done to make a man run,
The hard luck and failures of age -
Then I stopped with a crash - we looked into the ash,
Helpless with longing and rage.

Now a traveling life might seem all right,
A life without worry or care;
Always up and always out and always going somewhere,
But I'll tell you, friend-it's not where you are
But your reason for being there.

(sung)D          G           D
And then I awoke as the day broke,
                         A7
And gazed out over the plain,
    D               G          D
Thinking as how I'm better off now
           A7         D
Being in love with a train.
(chorus)