Lyrics Ballad of the Thunder Road - Robert Mitchum

Ballad of the Thunder Road

Now let me tell the story, I can tell it all
About the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol
His daddy made the whiskey, son, he drove the load
When his engine roared,
They called the highway thunder road.
Sometimes into ashville, sometimes memphis town
The revenoors chased him but they couldn’t run him
Down
Each time they thought they had him,
His engine would explode
He’d go by like they were standin' still on thunder
Road.
And there was thunder, thunder over thunder road
Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his
Load
There was moonshine, moonshine to 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
A federal man 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, if you can’t get through
I’d rather have you back again than all that mountain
Dew
Roarin' out of harlan, revving' up his mill
He shot the gap at cumberland,
And screamed by maynordsville
With g-men on his taillights, roadblocks up ahead
The mountain boy took roads that even angels feared
To tread.
Blazing' right through knoxville, out on kingston pike
Then right outside of Beardon, there they made the fatal
Strike
He left the road at ninety, that’s all there is to say
The devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy
That day