Wabash Cannonball
by A.P. Carter
"I learned the
'Wabash Cannonball' when I was a very young boy living
in east Tennessee near Knoxville. I sing the song in
exactly the same way I found it. I never changed a word.
The fact that there's a reference to a Daddy Claxton in
the last verse, which also happens to be my middle name,
is a coincidence. My father named me after Dr. P.T.
Claxton, a prominent teacher and lecturer at Austin Peay
College in Clarksville, Tennessee. On the day I was born
he had given a lecture in our town. My father was so
impressed, he named me after him."
—Roy Acuff
Wabash Cannonball
I stood on the
Atlantic Ocean
The wide Pacific shore
To the queen of the flowing mountains
To the southbell by the door
She's long and tall and handsome
And loved by one and all
She's a modern combination
Called the Wabash Cannonball
Oh listen to the jingle
The rumble and the roar
As she glides along the woodlands
Through the hills and by the shores
Hear the mighty rush of engines
Hear the lonsome hobos' call
We're travelling through the jungles
On the Wabash Cannonball
The eastern states are dandies
So the western people say
From New York to St. Louis
And Chicago by the way
Through the hills of Minnesota
Where the rippling waters fall
No chances can be taken
On the Wabash Cannonball
Here's to Daddy Klaxton
May his name forever stand
Will he be remembered
Through parts of all our land
His earthly race is over
And the curtain 'round him falls
We'll carry him on to victory
On the Wabash Cannonball
1941 by American Music Inc.
