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GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador
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Now let me tell the story, I can tell it all,
About the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol;
His daddy made the whiskey, the son he drove the load,
And when his engine roared, they called the highway Thunder Road.
Sometimes into Ashville, sometimes Memphis town,
The revenue they chased him but they couldn't run him down;
Each time they thought they had him, his engine would explode,
And he'd go by like they were standin' still on Thunder Road.
There was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road,
Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load;
Moonshine, moonshine, quench the devil's thirst,
The law they swore they'd get him, but the devil got him first.
On the first of April, nineteen fifty-four,
The federal men sent word he'd better make his run no more;
He said two hundred agents were coverin' the state,
Whichever road he tried to take, they'd get him sure as fate.
Son, his Daddy told him, make this run your last,
Your tank is filled with hundred-proof, you're all tuned up and gassed;
Now, don't take any chances, and if you get through,
I'd rather have you back again than all the mountain dew.
And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road,
Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load;
Moonshine, moonshine, quench the devil's thirst,
The law they swore they'd get him, but the devil got him first.
Roarin' out of Harlan, revvin' up his mill,
He shot the gap at Cumberland and screamed by Maynordsville;
With T-men on his taillights, and roadblocks up ahead,
The mountain boy took roads that even Angels fear to tred.
Blazing right through Knoxville, out on Kingston Pike,
Then right outside of Bearden, there they made their fatal strike;
He left the road at 90; that's all there is to say,
The devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy that day.
And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road,
Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load;
Moonshine, moonshine, quench the devil's thirst,
The law they swore they'd get him, but the devil got him first.
The law they swore they'd get him, but the devil got him first.