Lyrics Gillian Welch – April The 14th Part I

When the iceberg hit
Oh, they must have known
God moves on the water
Like Casey Jones

So I walked downtown
On my telephone
And took a lazy turn
Through the redeye zone

Was a five-band bill
A two-dollar show
I saw the van out in front
From Idaho

And the girl passed out
In the backseat trash
There were no way they’d make
Even a half a tank of gas

They looked sick and stoned
And strangely dressed
No one showed
From the local press

But I watched them walk
Through bottom land
And I wished I played
In a rock ‘n’ roll band

Hey, hey
It was the fourteenth day of April

Well, they closed it down
With the sales in rags
And I swept up the fags
And the local rags

I threw the plastic cups
In the plastic bags
And the cooks cleaned the kitchen
With the staggers and the jags

Ruination day
And the sky was red
I went back to work
And back to bed

And the iceberg broke
And the Okies fled
And the great emancipator
Took a bullet in the back of the head