| Song | October In The Railroad Earth (1999 Digital Remaster) |
| Artist | Steve Allen |
| Artist | Jack Kerouac |
| Album | Poetry For The Beat Generation |
| Download | Image LRC TXT |
| [00:13.128] | There was a little alley in San Francisco |
| [00:14.930] | back of the Southern Pacific station at Third and Townsend |
| [00:18.125] | in redbrick of drowsy lazy afternoons with everybody at work in offices |
| [00:22.288] | in the air you feel the impending rush of their commuter frenzy |
| [00:25.489] | as soon they’ll be charging en masse from Market and Sansome buildings |
| [00:29.915] | on foot and in buses and all well-dressed thru workingman Frisco of |
| [00:33.405] | walkup truck drivers and even the poor grime-bemarked Third |
| [00:38.277] | Street of lost bums even Negros so hopeless and long left East |
| [00:42.451] | and meanings of responsibility and try that now all they do is |
| [00:47.169] | stand there spitting in the broken glass sometimes fifty in one |
| [00:50.890] | afternoon against one wall at Third and Howard and here’s all |
| [00:54.397] | these Millbrae and San Carlos neat-necktied producers and |
| [00:57.753] | commuters of America and Steel civilization rushing by with San |
| [01:01.516] | Francisco Chronicles and green Call-Bulletins not even enough |
| [01:05.841] | time to be disdainful, they’ve got to catch 130, 132, 134, 136 all |
| [01:11.933] | the way up to 146 till the time of evening supper in homes of the |
| [01:16.485] | railroad earth when high in the sky the magic stars ride above |
| [01:19.684] | the following hotshot freight trains--it’s all in California, it’s all a |
| [01:24.714] | sea, I swim out of it in afternoons of sun hot meditation in my |
| [01:29.052] | jeans with head on handkerchief on brakeman’s lantern or (if not |
| [01:31.940] | working) on book, I look up at blue sky of perfect lostpurity and |
| [01:37.038] | feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me and I* have |
| [01:42.987] | insane conversations with Negroes in second*-story windows |
| [01:46.538] | above and everything is pouring in, the switching moves of |
| [01:51.260] | boxcars in that little alley which is so much like the alleys of |
| [01:54.058] | Lowell and I hear far off in the sense of coming night that engine |
| [01:57.367] | calling our mountains |
| [02:01.402] | But it was that beautiful cut of clouds I could always see above |
| [02:05.030] | the little S.P. alley, puffs floating by from Oakland |
| [02:08.759] | or the Gate of Marin |
| [02:13.344] | to the north or San Jose south, the clarity of Cal to break your heart |
| [02:20.179] | It was the fantastic drowse and drum hum of lum |
| [02:24.561] | mum afternoon nathin’ to do, ole Frisco with end of land |
| [02:30.391] | sadness--the people--the alley full of trucks and cars of |
| [02:37.133] | businesses nearabouts and nobody knew or far from cared who I |
| [02:40.893] | was all my life three thousand five hundred miles from birth-O |
| [02:44.070] | opened up and at last belonged to me in Great America |
| [02:47.472] | Now it's night in Third Street the keen little neons and |
| [03:00.463] | also yellow bulblights of impossible-to-believe flops with dark |
| [03:04.908] | ruined shadows moving back of tom yellow shades like a |
| [03:08.340] | degenerate China with no money-the cats in Annie's Alley, |
| [03:13.266] | the flop comes on, moans, rolls, the street is loaded with |
| [03:19.858] | darkness. Blue sky above with stars hanging high over old |
| [03:25.238] | hotel roofs and blowers of hotels moaning out dusts of interior, |
| [03:29.725] | the grime inside the word in mouths falling out tooth |
| [03:33.854] | by tooth, the reading rooms tick tock bigclock with creak |
| [03:38.182] | chair and slantboards and old faces looking up over rimless |
| [03:41.129] | spectacles bought in some West Virginia or Florida or Liverpool |
| [03:45.705] | England pawnshop long before I was born and across |
| [03:49.370] | rains they've come to the end of the land sadness end of the |
| [03:53.051] | world gladness all you San Franciscos will have to fall eventually |
| [03:58.049] | and burn again. But I'm walking and one night a bum |
| [04:02.661] | fell into the hole of the construction job where they're tearing |
| [04:05.566] | a sewer by day the husky Pacific & Electric youths in torn |
| [04:09.582] | jeans who work there often I think of going up to some of |
| [04:12.654] | 'em like say blond ones with wild hair and tom shirts and |
| [04:15.497] | say "You oughta apply for the railroad it's much easier work |
| [04:18.253] | you don't stand around the street all day and you get much |
| [04:19.569] | more pay" but this bum fell in the hole you saw his foot stick |
| [04:23.159] | out, a British MG also driven by some eccentric once backed |
| [04:27.964] | into the hole and as I came home from a long Saturday afternoon |
| [04:30.864] | local to Hollister out of San Jose miles away across |
| [04:33.221] | verdurous fields of prune and juice joy here's this British MG |
| [04:37.054] | backed and legs up wheels up into a pit |
| [04:40.194] | and bums and cops standing around right outside the coffee shop-it was the |
| [04:43.827] | way they fenced it but he never had the nerve to do it due |
| [04:46.113] | to the fact that he had no money and nowhere to go and O |
| [04:48.241] | his father was dead and O his mother was dead and O his |
| [04:50.338] | sister was dead and O his whereabout was dead was dead but |
| [04:52.485] | and then at that time also I lay in my room on long |
| [04:56.970] | Saturday afternoons listening to Jumpin' George with my |
| [04:59.201] | fifth of tokay no tea and just under the sheets laughed to |
| [05:02.764] | hear the crazy music "Mama, he treats your daughter mean," |
| [05:09.555] | Mama, Papa, and don't you come in here I'll kill you etc. |
| [05:12.571] | getting high by myself in room glooms and all wondrous |
| [05:16.244] | knowing about the Negro the essential American out there |
| [05:19.531] | always finding his solace his meaning in the fellaheen street |
| [05:24.666] | and not in abstract morality and even when he has a church |
| [05:28.260] | you see the pastor out front bowing to the ladies on the make |
| [05:31.965] | you hear his great vibrant voice on the sunny Sunday afternoon |
| [05:35.863] | sidewalk full of sexual vibratos saying "Why yes |
| [05:38.332] | Mam but de gospel do say that man was born of woman's |
| [05:41.523] | womb-" and no and so by that time I come crawling out |
| [05:46.276] | of my warmsack and hit the street when I see the railroad |
| [05:49.267] | ain't gonna call me till 5 AM Sunday morn probably for a |
| [05:52.511] | local out of Bay Shore in fact always for a local out of Bay |
| [05:54.917] | Shore and I go to the wailbar of all the wildbars in the world |
| [05:58.425] | the one and only Third-and-Howard and there I go in and |
| [06:01.277] | drink with the madmen and if I get drunk I git. |
| [06:06.301] | The girl who come up to me in there the night I was |
| [06:08.809] | there with Al Buckle and said to me "You wanta play with |
| [06:11.006] | me tonight Jim, and?" and I didn't think I had enough money |
| [06:17.063] | and later told this to Charley Low and he laughed and said |
| [06:19.361] | "How do you know she wanted money always take the chance |
| [06:21.884] | that she might be out just for love or just out for love you |
| [06:24.918] | know what I mean man don't be a sucker." She was a goodlooking |
| [06:27.536] | doll and said "How would you like to oolyakoo with |
| [06:32.484] | me mon?" and I stood there like a jerk and in fact bought |
| [06:37.164] | drink got drink drunk that night and in the 299 Club |
| [06:41.253] | I was hit by the proprietor the band breaking up the fight before I |
| [06:44.972] | had a chance to decide to hit him back which I didn't do |
| [06:46.473] | and out on the street I tried to rush back in but they had |
| [06:51.740] | locked the door and were looking at me thru the forbidden |
| [06:52.826] | glass in the door with faces like undersea––I should have |
| [06:56.181] | played with her shurrouruuruuruuruuruurukadooky |
| [06:59.817] | *Note: This "I" is not included in published versions of the work;? |
| [07:01.276] | "second" is printed as "several". |
| [00:13.128] | There was a little alley in San Francisco |
| [00:14.930] | back of the Southern Pacific station at Third and Townsend |
| [00:18.125] | in redbrick of drowsy lazy afternoons with everybody at work in offices |
| [00:22.288] | in the air you feel the impending rush of their commuter frenzy |
| [00:25.489] | as soon they' ll be charging en masse from Market and Sansome buildings |
| [00:29.915] | on foot and in buses and all welldressed thru workingman Frisco of |
| [00:33.405] | walkup truck drivers and even the poor grimebemarked Third |
| [00:38.277] | Street of lost bums even Negros so hopeless and long left East |
| [00:42.451] | and meanings of responsibility and try that now all they do is |
| [00:47.169] | stand there spitting in the broken glass sometimes fifty in one |
| [00:50.890] | afternoon against one wall at Third and Howard and here' s all |
| [00:54.397] | these Millbrae and San Carlos neatnecktied producers and |
| [00:57.753] | commuters of America and Steel civilization rushing by with San |
| [01:01.516] | Francisco Chronicles and green CallBulletins not even enough |
| [01:05.841] | time to be disdainful, they' ve got to catch 130, 132, 134, 136 all |
| [01:11.933] | the way up to 146 till the time of evening supper in homes of the |
| [01:16.485] | railroad earth when high in the sky the magic stars ride above |
| [01:19.684] | the following hotshot freight trainsit' s all in California, it' s all a |
| [01:24.714] | sea, I swim out of it in afternoons of sun hot meditation in my |
| [01:29.052] | jeans with head on handkerchief on brakeman' s lantern or if not |
| [01:31.940] | working on book, I look up at blue sky of perfect lostpurity and |
| [01:37.038] | feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me and I have |
| [01:42.987] | insane conversations with Negroes in second story windows |
| [01:46.538] | above and everything is pouring in, the switching moves of |
| [01:51.260] | boxcars in that little alley which is so much like the alleys of |
| [01:54.058] | Lowell and I hear far off in the sense of coming night that engine |
| [01:57.367] | calling our mountains |
| [02:01.402] | But it was that beautiful cut of clouds I could always see above |
| [02:05.030] | the little S. P. alley, puffs floating by from Oakland |
| [02:08.759] | or the Gate of Marin |
| [02:13.344] | to the north or San Jose south, the clarity of Cal to break your heart |
| [02:20.179] | It was the fantastic drowse and drum hum of lum |
| [02:24.561] | mum afternoon nathin' to do, ole Frisco with end of land |
| [02:30.391] | sadnessthe peoplethe alley full of trucks and cars of |
| [02:37.133] | businesses nearabouts and nobody knew or far from cared who I |
| [02:40.893] | was all my life three thousand five hundred miles from birthO |
| [02:44.070] | opened up and at last belonged to me in Great America |
| [02:47.472] | Now it' s night in Third Street the keen little neons and |
| [03:00.463] | also yellow bulblights of impossibletobelieve flops with dark |
| [03:04.908] | ruined shadows moving back of tom yellow shades like a |
| [03:08.340] | degenerate China with no moneythe cats in Annie' s Alley, |
| [03:13.266] | the flop comes on, moans, rolls, the street is loaded with |
| [03:19.858] | darkness. Blue sky above with stars hanging high over old |
| [03:25.238] | hotel roofs and blowers of hotels moaning out dusts of interior, |
| [03:29.725] | the grime inside the word in mouths falling out tooth |
| [03:33.854] | by tooth, the reading rooms tick tock bigclock with creak |
| [03:38.182] | chair and slantboards and old faces looking up over rimless |
| [03:41.129] | spectacles bought in some West Virginia or Florida or Liverpool |
| [03:45.705] | England pawnshop long before I was born and across |
| [03:49.370] | rains they' ve come to the end of the land sadness end of the |
| [03:53.051] | world gladness all you San Franciscos will have to fall eventually |
| [03:58.049] | and burn again. But I' m walking and one night a bum |
| [04:02.661] | fell into the hole of the construction job where they' re tearing |
| [04:05.566] | a sewer by day the husky Pacific Electric youths in torn |
| [04:09.582] | jeans who work there often I think of going up to some of |
| [04:12.654] | ' em like say blond ones with wild hair and tom shirts and |
| [04:15.497] | say " You oughta apply for the railroad it' s much easier work |
| [04:18.253] | you don' t stand around the street all day and you get much |
| [04:19.569] | more pay" but this bum fell in the hole you saw his foot stick |
| [04:23.159] | out, a British MG also driven by some eccentric once backed |
| [04:27.964] | into the hole and as I came home from a long Saturday afternoon |
| [04:30.864] | local to Hollister out of San Jose miles away across |
| [04:33.221] | verdurous fields of prune and juice joy here' s this British MG |
| [04:37.054] | backed and legs up wheels up into a pit |
| [04:40.194] | and bums and cops standing around right outside the coffee shopit was the |
| [04:43.827] | way they fenced it but he never had the nerve to do it due |
| [04:46.113] | to the fact that he had no money and nowhere to go and O |
| [04:48.241] | his father was dead and O his mother was dead and O his |
| [04:50.338] | sister was dead and O his whereabout was dead was dead but |
| [04:52.485] | and then at that time also I lay in my room on long |
| [04:56.970] | Saturday afternoons listening to Jumpin' George with my |
| [04:59.201] | fifth of tokay no tea and just under the sheets laughed to |
| [05:02.764] | hear the crazy music " Mama, he treats your daughter mean," |
| [05:09.555] | Mama, Papa, and don' t you come in here I' ll kill you etc. |
| [05:12.571] | getting high by myself in room glooms and all wondrous |
| [05:16.244] | knowing about the Negro the essential American out there |
| [05:19.531] | always finding his solace his meaning in the fellaheen street |
| [05:24.666] | and not in abstract morality and even when he has a church |
| [05:28.260] | you see the pastor out front bowing to the ladies on the make |
| [05:31.965] | you hear his great vibrant voice on the sunny Sunday afternoon |
| [05:35.863] | sidewalk full of sexual vibratos saying " Why yes |
| [05:38.332] | Mam but de gospel do say that man was born of woman' s |
| [05:41.523] | womb" and no and so by that time I come crawling out |
| [05:46.276] | of my warmsack and hit the street when I see the railroad |
| [05:49.267] | ain' t gonna call me till 5 AM Sunday morn probably for a |
| [05:52.511] | local out of Bay Shore in fact always for a local out of Bay |
| [05:54.917] | Shore and I go to the wailbar of all the wildbars in the world |
| [05:58.425] | the one and only ThirdandHoward and there I go in and |
| [06:01.277] | drink with the madmen and if I get drunk I git. |
| [06:06.301] | The girl who come up to me in there the night I was |
| [06:08.809] | there with Al Buckle and said to me " You wanta play with |
| [06:11.006] | me tonight Jim, and?" and I didn' t think I had enough money |
| [06:17.063] | and later told this to Charley Low and he laughed and said |
| [06:19.361] | " How do you know she wanted money always take the chance |
| [06:21.884] | that she might be out just for love or just out for love you |
| [06:24.918] | know what I mean man don' t be a sucker." She was a goodlooking |
| [06:27.536] | doll and said " How would you like to oolyakoo with |
| [06:32.484] | me mon?" and I stood there like a jerk and in fact bought |
| [06:37.164] | drink got drink drunk that night and in the 299 Club |
| [06:41.253] | I was hit by the proprietor the band breaking up the fight before I |
| [06:44.972] | had a chance to decide to hit him back which I didn' t do |
| [06:46.473] | and out on the street I tried to rush back in but they had |
| [06:51.740] | locked the door and were looking at me thru the forbidden |
| [06:52.826] | glass in the door with faces like undersea I should have |
| [06:56.181] | played with her shurrouruuruuruuruuruurukadooky |
| [06:59.817] | Note: This " I" is not included in published versions of the work? |
| [07:01.276] | " second" is printed as " several". |
| [00:13.128] | There was a little alley in San Francisco |
| [00:14.930] | back of the Southern Pacific station at Third and Townsend |
| [00:18.125] | in redbrick of drowsy lazy afternoons with everybody at work in offices |
| [00:22.288] | in the air you feel the impending rush of their commuter frenzy |
| [00:25.489] | as soon they' ll be charging en masse from Market and Sansome buildings |
| [00:29.915] | on foot and in buses and all welldressed thru workingman Frisco of |
| [00:33.405] | walkup truck drivers and even the poor grimebemarked Third |
| [00:38.277] | Street of lost bums even Negros so hopeless and long left East |
| [00:42.451] | and meanings of responsibility and try that now all they do is |
| [00:47.169] | stand there spitting in the broken glass sometimes fifty in one |
| [00:50.890] | afternoon against one wall at Third and Howard and here' s all |
| [00:54.397] | these Millbrae and San Carlos neatnecktied producers and |
| [00:57.753] | commuters of America and Steel civilization rushing by with San |
| [01:01.516] | Francisco Chronicles and green CallBulletins not even enough |
| [01:05.841] | time to be disdainful, they' ve got to catch 130, 132, 134, 136 all |
| [01:11.933] | the way up to 146 till the time of evening supper in homes of the |
| [01:16.485] | railroad earth when high in the sky the magic stars ride above |
| [01:19.684] | the following hotshot freight trainsit' s all in California, it' s all a |
| [01:24.714] | sea, I swim out of it in afternoons of sun hot meditation in my |
| [01:29.052] | jeans with head on handkerchief on brakeman' s lantern or if not |
| [01:31.940] | working on book, I look up at blue sky of perfect lostpurity and |
| [01:37.038] | feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me and I have |
| [01:42.987] | insane conversations with Negroes in second story windows |
| [01:46.538] | above and everything is pouring in, the switching moves of |
| [01:51.260] | boxcars in that little alley which is so much like the alleys of |
| [01:54.058] | Lowell and I hear far off in the sense of coming night that engine |
| [01:57.367] | calling our mountains |
| [02:01.402] | But it was that beautiful cut of clouds I could always see above |
| [02:05.030] | the little S. P. alley, puffs floating by from Oakland |
| [02:08.759] | or the Gate of Marin |
| [02:13.344] | to the north or San Jose south, the clarity of Cal to break your heart |
| [02:20.179] | It was the fantastic drowse and drum hum of lum |
| [02:24.561] | mum afternoon nathin' to do, ole Frisco with end of land |
| [02:30.391] | sadnessthe peoplethe alley full of trucks and cars of |
| [02:37.133] | businesses nearabouts and nobody knew or far from cared who I |
| [02:40.893] | was all my life three thousand five hundred miles from birthO |
| [02:44.070] | opened up and at last belonged to me in Great America |
| [02:47.472] | Now it' s night in Third Street the keen little neons and |
| [03:00.463] | also yellow bulblights of impossibletobelieve flops with dark |
| [03:04.908] | ruined shadows moving back of tom yellow shades like a |
| [03:08.340] | degenerate China with no moneythe cats in Annie' s Alley, |
| [03:13.266] | the flop comes on, moans, rolls, the street is loaded with |
| [03:19.858] | darkness. Blue sky above with stars hanging high over old |
| [03:25.238] | hotel roofs and blowers of hotels moaning out dusts of interior, |
| [03:29.725] | the grime inside the word in mouths falling out tooth |
| [03:33.854] | by tooth, the reading rooms tick tock bigclock with creak |
| [03:38.182] | chair and slantboards and old faces looking up over rimless |
| [03:41.129] | spectacles bought in some West Virginia or Florida or Liverpool |
| [03:45.705] | England pawnshop long before I was born and across |
| [03:49.370] | rains they' ve come to the end of the land sadness end of the |
| [03:53.051] | world gladness all you San Franciscos will have to fall eventually |
| [03:58.049] | and burn again. But I' m walking and one night a bum |
| [04:02.661] | fell into the hole of the construction job where they' re tearing |
| [04:05.566] | a sewer by day the husky Pacific Electric youths in torn |
| [04:09.582] | jeans who work there often I think of going up to some of |
| [04:12.654] | ' em like say blond ones with wild hair and tom shirts and |
| [04:15.497] | say " You oughta apply for the railroad it' s much easier work |
| [04:18.253] | you don' t stand around the street all day and you get much |
| [04:19.569] | more pay" but this bum fell in the hole you saw his foot stick |
| [04:23.159] | out, a British MG also driven by some eccentric once backed |
| [04:27.964] | into the hole and as I came home from a long Saturday afternoon |
| [04:30.864] | local to Hollister out of San Jose miles away across |
| [04:33.221] | verdurous fields of prune and juice joy here' s this British MG |
| [04:37.054] | backed and legs up wheels up into a pit |
| [04:40.194] | and bums and cops standing around right outside the coffee shopit was the |
| [04:43.827] | way they fenced it but he never had the nerve to do it due |
| [04:46.113] | to the fact that he had no money and nowhere to go and O |
| [04:48.241] | his father was dead and O his mother was dead and O his |
| [04:50.338] | sister was dead and O his whereabout was dead was dead but |
| [04:52.485] | and then at that time also I lay in my room on long |
| [04:56.970] | Saturday afternoons listening to Jumpin' George with my |
| [04:59.201] | fifth of tokay no tea and just under the sheets laughed to |
| [05:02.764] | hear the crazy music " Mama, he treats your daughter mean," |
| [05:09.555] | Mama, Papa, and don' t you come in here I' ll kill you etc. |
| [05:12.571] | getting high by myself in room glooms and all wondrous |
| [05:16.244] | knowing about the Negro the essential American out there |
| [05:19.531] | always finding his solace his meaning in the fellaheen street |
| [05:24.666] | and not in abstract morality and even when he has a church |
| [05:28.260] | you see the pastor out front bowing to the ladies on the make |
| [05:31.965] | you hear his great vibrant voice on the sunny Sunday afternoon |
| [05:35.863] | sidewalk full of sexual vibratos saying " Why yes |
| [05:38.332] | Mam but de gospel do say that man was born of woman' s |
| [05:41.523] | womb" and no and so by that time I come crawling out |
| [05:46.276] | of my warmsack and hit the street when I see the railroad |
| [05:49.267] | ain' t gonna call me till 5 AM Sunday morn probably for a |
| [05:52.511] | local out of Bay Shore in fact always for a local out of Bay |
| [05:54.917] | Shore and I go to the wailbar of all the wildbars in the world |
| [05:58.425] | the one and only ThirdandHoward and there I go in and |
| [06:01.277] | drink with the madmen and if I get drunk I git. |
| [06:06.301] | The girl who come up to me in there the night I was |
| [06:08.809] | there with Al Buckle and said to me " You wanta play with |
| [06:11.006] | me tonight Jim, and?" and I didn' t think I had enough money |
| [06:17.063] | and later told this to Charley Low and he laughed and said |
| [06:19.361] | " How do you know she wanted money always take the chance |
| [06:21.884] | that she might be out just for love or just out for love you |
| [06:24.918] | know what I mean man don' t be a sucker." She was a goodlooking |
| [06:27.536] | doll and said " How would you like to oolyakoo with |
| [06:32.484] | me mon?" and I stood there like a jerk and in fact bought |
| [06:37.164] | drink got drink drunk that night and in the 299 Club |
| [06:41.253] | I was hit by the proprietor the band breaking up the fight before I |
| [06:44.972] | had a chance to decide to hit him back which I didn' t do |
| [06:46.473] | and out on the street I tried to rush back in but they had |
| [06:51.740] | locked the door and were looking at me thru the forbidden |
| [06:52.826] | glass in the door with faces like undersea I should have |
| [06:56.181] | played with her shurrouruuruuruuruuruurukadooky |
| [06:59.817] | Note: This " I" is not included in published versions of the work? |
| [07:01.276] | " second" is printed as " several". |