There's a big black train   I've been hearing all my life   Every night, at sundown   I hear its lonesome cry      When I look through the screen door   I see a rocking chair   My mama's sitting in it   Thinking 'bout that world out there      She wants to go over that mountain   To see what's on the other side   She said, "I want to go over that mountain   Before the day that I die"      Well she's never set foot   Out of this poor valley holler   Though she talks about her dreams   Of some other way to fly      Eighty seven years of living   And never had much of anything   Is it asking too much to see   A damned old diesel train?      She wants to go over that mountain   To see what's on the other side   She said, "I want to go over that mountain   Before the day that I die"      Twenty years ago, today   My daddy left this holler   He said, "I'll be coming back   Tomorrow night"      I remember the sound   Of his boot heels in the gravel   Well, he ain't been back since   And he never said goodbye      She wants to go over that mountain   To see what's on the other side   She said, "I want to go over that mountain   Before the day that I die   Before the day that I die"