James Bell was a company man
Five years old and he’d go and stand
by the tracks and watch the trains go past
He’d get chills when he saw them like that
He had a girl but he had to let her go
He couldn’t give her what she needed most
He fell in love with that steel
No woman’s touch could ever make him feel that
Twenty years, nose to the grindstone
Twenty more, and they broke his heart and his bones
When they let old James Bell go
Dark house with the curtains drawn
And his old friends try to call
They say pick up the phone, put down the bottle
Twenty years, nose to the grindstone
Twenty more, and they broke his heart and his bones
When they let old James Bell go
When they let old James Bell go
Twenty years with his nose to the grindstone
Twenty more and they broke his heart and his bones
Twenty years, nose to the grindstone
Twenty more and they broke his heart and his bones
When they let old James Bell go
When they let old James Bell go
