Trying to Get to Heaven

The air is gettin' hotter

There's a rumblin' in the skies

I been wadin' through the high, muddy water

With the heat risin' in my eyes

Every day your memory grows dimmer

It doesn't haunt me like it did before

I been walkin' through the middle of nowhere

Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

When I was in Missouri

They would not let me be

I had to leave there in a hurry

I only saw what they let me see

You broke a heart that loved you

Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore

I've been walkin' that lonesome valley

Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

People on the platforms

Waitin' for the trains

I can hear their hearts a-beatin'

Like pendulums swingin' on chains

When you think that you've lost everything

You find out you can always lose a little more

I'm just goin' down the road, feelin' bad

Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

I'm goin' down the river

Down to New Orleans

They tell me everything is gonna be all right

But I don't know what alright even means

I was ridin' in a buggy with Miss Mary Jane

Miss Mary Jane got a house in Baltimore

I've been all around the world, boys

Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door

Gonna sleep down in the parlor

And relive my dreams

I close my eyes, and I wonder

If everything is as hollow as it seems

Some trains don't pull no gamblers

No midnight ramblers like they did before

I've been to Sugar Town, I shook the sugar down

Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door