Roadside Flowers

Following the footsteps
That you gave me, I walked out alone,
Highway stretching out in front of me

There I saw the billboards
And the smoke from the refinery
Where the open sky had used to be

Passing through the small towns
With their clapboard houses beaten down
I could hear the distant church bell ring

There, beneath the maple trees
It all comes rushing back to me
A simple thing forgotten long ago
Long ago
Long ago
I heard those bells toll.

I walk alone
I am on a lonely road
I walk alone
Just see the roadside flowers, look how they have grown

I have been in cities where
The multitudes enveloped me
Stations and the depots felt so cold

Looked up at the city spires,
They couldn't build them any higher,
A giant's teeth were clenched around my soul

I walked along the riverside
To watch the changing of the tides
Tryin' to find some treasure in this place

Then my eyes were opened wide
When I saw the blood-red tide
And the black cloud hanging over me
Over me
Over me
Hanging over me

I walk alone
I am on the lonely road
I walk alone
To see the roadside flowers, look how they have grown

Hey, hey

Uphill the road of factories
Reminding me of battlefields
Where our brightest promises were lost

Overcome by fire and steel,
Groaning for humanity,
A thousand voices drowning in that road

While, this is Mr. Harriman -
He built his stakes on railroad blood,
Rolling in his comforts and his spoils

With the wind, we headed west
Taking little time rest
Felt the prairies burning under me
Under me
Under me
Burning under me

I walk alone
I am on a lonely road
I walk alone
Just see the roadside flowers, look how they have grown

I walk alone
I am on a lonely road
I walk alone
To see the roadside flowers, look how they have grown

Yeah (I am on a lonely road)
[repeat chorus]