30,000 Pounds of Bananas (Live) [1975] (Live; 1975)

It was just after dark when the truck started down

The hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania

Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas

Carrying thirty thousand pounds (hit it Big John) of bananas

He was a young driver

Just out on his second job

And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits

For everyone in that coal-scarred city

Where children play without despair

In backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day

Just about thirty thousand pounds of bananas

Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds (scream it again, John) of bananas

He passed a sign that he should have seen

Saying "shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend."

He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman

Who was waiting at the journey's end

He started down the two mile drop

The curving road that wound from the top of the hill

He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot

Just a few more miles to go

Then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away

And the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas

Yes the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas

He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him

But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights

Delights went through him

His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down

But the pedal floored easy without a sound

He said "Christ!"

It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now

He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide

Riding on his fear-hunched back

Was every one of those yellow green

I'm telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas

Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas

He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade

And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour

And he said "God, make it a dream!"

As he rode his last ride down

And he said "God, make it a dream!"

As he rode his last ride down

And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars

Clipped off thirteen telephone poles

Hit two houses, bruised eight trees

And Blue-Crossed seven people

It was then he lost his head

Not to mention an arm or two before he stopped

And he slid for four hundred yards

Along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania

All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas

Yes, we have no bananas

We have no bananas today

And if that wasn't enough

Yes, we have no bananas

Bananas in Scranton, P A

A woman walks into her room where her child lies sleeping

And when she sees his eyes are closed

She sits there, silently weeping

And though she lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania

She never ever eats Bananas

Not one of thirty thousand pounds of bananas

You see the man who told me about it on the bus

As it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania

He shrugged his head, he shrugged shoulders

And he said (and this is exactly what he said)

"Boy that sure must've been something

Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas

Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas

Of bananas. Just bananas. Thirty thousand pounds

Of Bananas, not no driver now. Just bananas!"