The Ballad of Thunder Road

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 And 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 And there was thunder, thunder over thunder road Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load And there was moonshine, moonshine to quench the devil's thirst The law they swore they'd get him, but the devil got him first 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 And there was thunder, thunder over thunder road Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load And there was moonshine, moonshine to quench the devil's thirst The law they never got him, but the devil got him first Law they never got him, but the devil got him first (Thunder, thunder, thunder road)