Lyrics to
Railroad Lady

This version of Railroad Lady was released by Jimmy Buffett in 1973.

Our About Jimmy Buffett page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Railroad Lady from 1973 as well as all of the other lyrics from Jimmy Buffett that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Jimmy Buffett or about the 1970s in general.

She’s a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spending her days on the train
She’s a semi-good looker
The fast rails they took ‘er
Now she’s tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again.

South Station on Boston to the stockyards of Austin
From the Florida sunshine to the New Orleans’s rain
Now that the rail packs
Has taken the best tracks
She’s tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again.

She’s a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spending her life on the trains
Once a pullman car traveler
Now the brakeman won’t have ‘er
She’s tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again.

Once a high balling loner he thought he could own ‘er
He bought her a fur and a big diamond ring
She hocked them for cold cash
Left town on the Wabash
Never thinking of home way back then.

But the rails are now rusty
The dining car’s dusty
The gold plated watches have taken their toll
The railroads are dying
And the lady she’s crying
On a bus to Kentucky and home that’s her goal.

She’s a railroad lady
Just a little bit shaky
Spending her life on the train
She’s a semi-good looker
But the fast rails the took ‘er
Now she’ tryin’, just tryin’ to get home again.

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Jimmy Buffett has released many songs over the years besides Railroad Lady. Jimmy Buffett released songs from 1970 to 2004 spanning across albums like Down To Earth, High Cumberland Jubilee, A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean, A1A, Living And Dying In 3/4 Time, Havana Daydreamin', Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, Son Of A Son Of A Sailor, Volcano, Coconut Telegraph, Somewhere Over China, One Particular Harbour, Riddles In The Sand, Last Mango In Paris, Floridays, Hot Water, Off To See The Lizard, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads, Fruitcakes, Barometer Soup, Christmas Island, Banana Wind, Beach House On The Moon, Far Side Of The World, and License To Chill. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Jimmy Buffett.

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

About Lyrics and Railroad Lady by Jimmy Buffett

The lyrics for Railroad Lady are defined as the words making up the song released by Jimmy Buffett in 1973. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Railroad Lady have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Jimmy Buffett and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Railroad Lady by Jimmy Buffett if you think through it. 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 Railroad Lady" means the words set to the music of Railroad Lady, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Jimmy Buffett. 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 Railroad Lady and the lyrics to Railroad Lady are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Jimmy Buffett who came here looking just for the lyrics to Railroad Lady, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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