Virginia Town

When I was in Virginia Town, in an old abandoned mine

I met a man of some renoun a ghost from another time

He told me how it felt to be a miner in the line

To swing that pick and make that sprite and see that silver shine (To swing that pick and make that strike and see that silver shine)

He made the west live again for me as the story he did unfold

Of the fast wild life that used to be in the land of silver and gold

When the silver dollar jumped at night would swept and sat at the grime

And the bucket of blood had a roundhouse fight and drinks were a nugget or a dime

When I was in Virginia Town I heard the story go

Of the vast wild life that used to be in the land of silver and gold

Now they're lying in their graves, the weeds grow all around high up on a windswept hill not too far from town

From A street to D street where Junior and the girls would play

The empty houses gaped their pass with echoes of yesterday

The gay and rockish shouts are gone, the iron has turned to rust

But the wind placed tricks upon my ears as a blow through streets of dust

Sometimes I think I hear them still the soft rustle of a gown

And phantom hoof beats on the wind swept hill not too far from town

When I was in Virginia Town I heard the story go

Of the vast wild life that used to be in the land of silver and gold

(Land of silver and gold)