In the alley dogs are barking, chickens crowing down the lane   And I feel just like that rooster and his mournful old refrain   With sun down on my shoulders just a hangin’ round the yard   I’ll be leaving here tomorrow, gonna catch an empty car      There’s a thousand constellations in that brilliant beaming sky   But the earth is just one station in that lonesome starry line   And there’s a distant whistle blowing down a rusty stretch of track   And I’m just an empty coal car on that train not coming back         -Chorus-   But I hate to see that evening sun go down   When it’s lonesome coming down on my trail   And I know this train will take me where I’m bound   But I hate to see that evening sun go down         The sidewalks have their streetlamps the city has her glow   The poor boy has the moonlight walking in his shadow   But the nighttime can’t be trusted to return the morning sun   My eyes have not adjusted to this black face I got on      -Chorus-      Don’t the nighttime make you lonesome for that early morning sun   For the light upon that engine reaching towards the dawn   You can spend your whole life racing down rusty railroad line   It’s the setting sun you’re chasing in that dark and rolling sky      -Chorus-