A long time ago come a man on a track Walkin' thirty miles with a sack on his back And he put down his load where he thought it was the best Made a home in the wilderness
Built a cabin and a winter store He ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore The other travellers came walking down the track They never went further, no, they never went back
Then came the churches, then came the schools Then came the lawyers, then came the rules Then came the trains and the trucks with their load And the dirty old track was the telegraph road
Yeah, and then came the mines, then came the ore Then there was the hard times, then there was a war Telegraph sang a song about the world outside And the telegraph road got so deep and so wide like a rolling river
My radio says, tonight it's gonna freeze People drivin' home from the factories Now here comes six lanes of traffic Three lanes moving slow
Used to like to go to work but they shut it all down I got a right to go to work, no work here to be found Yeah and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owed We're gonna have to reap from the seed that's sowed
When all the birds up on the wires and up on the poles They can always get outta this rain and this cold Then you can hear them singin' out their telegraph code All the way down the telegraph road
And I'd sooner forget but I remember those nights Yeah, life was just a bet on a race between the lights You had your head on my shoulder, had your hand in my hair Now you actin' little colder like you don't seem care
But just believe in me baby, and I'll get you away I'm gonna get you out of this darkness and into the day From all these rivers of headlights, from these river of rain
From the anger that lives on the streets with these names 'Cause I've run every red light on memory lane I've seen desperation explode into flames And I don't wanna see it again
From all of these signs, just sayin', 'Sorry but we're closed' [Incomprehensible] Down the telegraph road