It was just after dark when the truck started down   The hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania   Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas   Carrying thirty thousand pounds   Hit it big John   Of bananas      He was a young driver   Just out on his second job   And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits   For everyone in that coal scarred city   Where children play without despair      In backyard slag piles and folks manage to eat each day   About thirty thousand pounds of bananas   Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds   Scream it again, John   Of bananas      He passed a sign that he should have seen   Saying "Shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend."   He was thinking perhaps about the warm breathed woman   Who was waiting at the journey's end   He started down the two mile drop   The curving road that wound from the top of the hill      He was pushing on through the shortening miles   That ran down to the depot   Just a few more miles to go   Then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away   And the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas   Yes the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas      He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights, below him   But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights   Delights went through him   His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down   But the pedal floored easy without a sound   He said, "Christ"      It was funny how he had named the only man   Who could save him now   He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide   Riding on his fear hunched back   Was everyone of those yellow green   I'm telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas   Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas      He barely made the sweeping curve   That led into the steepest grade   And he missed the thankful passing bus   At ninety miles an hour   And he said, "God, make it a dream"   As he rode his last ride down      He said, "God, make it a dream"   As he rode his last ride down   And he sideswiped nineteen neatly parked cars   Clipped off thirteen telephone poles   Hit two houses, bruised eight trees      And blue crossed seven people   It was then he lost his head   Not to mention an arm or two before he stopped   And he slid for four hundred yards   Along the hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania   All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas      You know the man who told me about it on the bus   As it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania   He shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head   And he said      And this is exactly what he said   "Boy that sure must've been something   Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas"   Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas   Of bananas, bananas, just bananas, thirty thousand pounds   Of bananas, not no driver now, just bananas