Lumberjack

Ride this train to Roseburg, Oregon, now there's a town for you

And you talk about rough

You know a lot of places in the country claim Paul Bunyon lived there

But you should have seen Roseburg when me and my daddy come there

Every one of them loggers looked like Paul Bunyon to me

And I was a skinny kid about sixteen

And I was scared to death when we walked into that camp

None of the lumberjacks paid any attention to me at first

But when my pa told the boss that me and him wanted a job

A lot of 'em stopped their work to see what was gonna happen

That big boss walked around me looked me up and down and said

Mister, I believe that boy is made out of second growth timber and I guess I was

Everybody but me and pa had a big laugh over it

Pa got kinda mad and the boss finally said he might start me out as a high climber

I didn't know what a high climber was, boy, I sure learned fast

That steel corded rope cut my back and that axe

I thought it was gonna break my arms off but I stuck with it

It wasn't long 'til I learned that a man's got to be a lot tougher than the timber he's cuttin'

Finally I could swing that crosscut saw with the best of them

I lived on a farm out in Iowa

I pulled the corn and I worked in the hay

Got trapped by a girl but I wiggled free

Heard the Oregon timber calling me

Will you tell me something, Mr. Lumberjack?

Is it one for forward and three for back?

Is it two for stop or four for go?

Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know

Well, I learned this fact from a logger named Ray

You don't cut timber on a windy day

Stay out of the woods when the moisture's low

Or you ain't gonna live to collect your dough

Will you tell me something, Mr. Lumberjack?

Is it one for forward and three for back?

Is it two for stop or four for go?

Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know

Well you work in the woods from morning to night

You laugh and sing and you cuss and fight

On Saturday night you go to Eugene

And on a Sunday morning, your pockets are clean

Will you tell me something, Mr. Lumberjack?

Is it one for forward and three for back?

Is it two for stop or four for go?

Boy, ask a whistle punk, I don't know