Lyrics to
Long Train Runnin’

This version of Long Train Runnin’ was released by The Doobie Brothers in 1973.

Our Decade Lyrics The Doobie Brothers profile has all of the Long Train Runnin’ lyrics from 1973 and many more songs from the The Doobie Brothers discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Doobie Brothers or about the 1970s in general.

Down around the corner
A half a mile from here
You see them old trains runnin’
And you watch them disappear
Without love
Where would you be now
Without love
You know I saw Miss Lucy
Down along the tracks
She lost her home and her family
And she won’t be comin’ back
Without love
Where would you be now
Without love

Well the Illinois Central
And the Southern Central Freight
Gotta keep on pushin’ Mama
‘Cause you know they’re runnin’ late
Without love
Where would you be now – now, now, now
Without love

Where pistons keep on churnin’
And the wheels go ’round and ’round
And the steel rails are cold and hard
For the miles that they go down
Without love
Where would you be right now
Without love
Where would you be now

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Want more lyrics and songs by The Doobie Brothers?

The Doobie Brothers has released many songs over the years besides Long Train Runnin’. The Doobie Brothers released songs from 1971 to 2000 spanning across albums like The Doobie Brothers, Toulouse Street, The Captain And Me, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Stampede, Takin' It To The Streets, Livin' On The Fault Line, Minute By Minute, One Step Closer, Cycles, Brotherhood, and Sibling Rivalry. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Doobie Brothers.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1973 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Long Train Runnin’ by The Doobie Brothers

When you decide to study the lyrics to Long Train Runnin’, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1973 song by The Doobie Brothers. Some of the lyrics to Long Train Runnin’ have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Doobie Brothers and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Long Train Runnin’ if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Long Train Runnin’" means the words set to the music of Long Train Runnin’, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Doobie Brothers. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Long Train Runnin’ and the lyrics to Long Train Runnin’ are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Doobie Brothers who came here looking just for the lyrics to Long Train Runnin’, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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