Medicine Jack - The Waterboys

Let me tell you the tale of Medicine Jack

He went out in the woods and he never came back

Equipped with a stick and a big old sack

He went too close to the railroad track

You know what they say about Medicine Jack

He lived his life in a rolldown shack

The wind a-screeching through the cracks

And the sound of the trains from the railroad track

Well here’s the truth about Medicine Jack

He painted his face and his whole shack black

He went up in the woods and he never came back

He must have got too close to the railroad track

Did you see him on that fateful night?

Did you see his grizzly face in the torchlight?

Did you see him crawling down among the trees

And getting scabs on his hands and knees?

Did you see the demise of Medicine Jack

His pitiful face still painted black

Just a spit and a stride from the rolldown shack

Down on by the railroad track?

Don’t turn your back on Medicine Jack!

I was thinking about the ghost of Medicine Jack

On starless nights when the sky is black

I can hear him singing those deadman’s blues

And whistling down by the railroad track