Like all good blues songs the song has a literal and figurative meaning.
Literally, it's about a guy hopping on a train boxcar and going down from Chicago to Chattanooga to stay with his sister.
Figuratively, it his lot in life that is going down. He has to jump a boxcar to go sleep on his sisters porch, implying that he is broke and homeless.
Like all good blues songs the song has a literal and figurative meaning. Literally, it's about a guy hopping on a train boxcar and going down from Chicago to Chattanooga to stay with his sister. Figuratively, it his lot in life that is going down. He has to jump a boxcar to go sleep on his sisters porch, implying that he is broke and homeless.