Shackles And Chains

Barstow to L.A., set my soul a-saying,
"C'mon you old railroad,
You ain't got a shackle or a chain,
You ain't got a shackle or a chain."

Goodbye country woman, driving me insane.
Hello anybody
If you ain't got a shackle or a chain.

Oh, let me go, let me ramble,
I don't want to know the pain
Or the rattle and the clatter
Of the shackles and the chains.

All lyrics copyright John Stewart

Interpretation

This song suggests the need to escape from the chains and pains of the past - to get on the move (thus the energetic tempo of the song, contrasting to the previous sustained meditation on the past). Railroads are the line leading the singer away from the bloodlines previously examined - but paradoxically they are old and linked to tradition. The singer 'sets his soul the same' (so it's like the past: secure, unchanging). This suggests the importance of keeping his inner feelings linked to his bloodlines . While travelling on the rail lines into the future, the past must still be faced and it's best kept within. The singer is between past and present, in a searching void within which he can contemplate these issues.