If I could go down now   While the whole town is sleeping   See the sun creeping up on the hill   I know the river and the railroad   Would run through the valley still      I guess it never was much to look at   Just a one-horse town   The kind of place young people want to leave today   Store fronts pretty much boarded up   Main street pretty much closed down      The church bell still rings on sunday   Old folks still go   The young ones listen on the radio   Saturday night nothing but a stray dog running wild   Like nobody's child      And little by little, light after light   That's how it died   They say you never go home again   That's no lie   Its like a letter in the mail   To a brother in jail   It's a matter of time   Until you can do a little bit better time      It used to be part of the heartland   Awful proud and strong   But deep, deep down peaceful and serene   When people used to talk about the country   That's what they used to mean      I might go down come the weekend   Go on my own   Drop off annie and the baby   Maybe drive alone   Pay my last respects to a time   That has all but gone      We said, mama come look at the mountain   Fire in the sky   It's lit up like the fourth of july   The mill burning down   The jobs leaving town   The trains rolling by   And little by little, light after light   That's how it died   They say you never go home again   That's no lie   It's just a letter in the mail   To a brother in jail   It's a matter of time   Until you can do a little bit better time