Written by: Chuck Berry
# Debut Chart
41 Dec '64 Hot 100

I left my home
In Norfolk, Virginia
California on my mind
I straddled that Greyhound
And rode him into Raleigh
And on across Caroline

We stopped in Charlotte
But bypassed Rock Hill
We never was a minute late
We was ninety miles out
Of Atlanta by sundown
Rolling out of Georgia state

We had motor trouble
It turned into a struggle
Half way across Alabam
And that hound broke down
And left us all stranded
In downtown Birmingham

Right away, I bought me
A through train ticket
Riding cross Mississippi clean
And I was on that midnight
Flyer out of Birmingham
Smoking into New Orleans

Somebody help me
Get out of Louisiana
Just help me get to Houston town
There are people there who
Care a little bout me and
They won't let the poor boy down

Sure as you're born
They bought me a silk suit
Put luggage in my hands
And I woke up high over Albuquerque
On a jet to the promised land

Working on a T-bone steak ala carte
Flying over to the Golden State
When the pilot told us
In thirteen minutes, he would
Sit us at the terminal gate

Swing low, chariot, come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone
Cut your engines and cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone

Los Angeles
Give me Norfolk, Virginia
Tidewater four ten O nine
Tell the folks back home
This is the promised land calling
And the poor boy's on the line

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