I left my home in Norfolk Virginia, California on my mind

I straddled that Greyhound and rolled in into Raleigh and all across Carolina

We stopped in Charlotte and bypassed Rock Hill, and we never was a minute late

We was 90 miles out of Atlanta by sundown rollin' 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, ridin' cross Mississippi clean

And I was on that midnight flier 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

Workin' on a T-bone steak à la carte, flying over to the Golden State

Oh, when the pilot told me in thirteen minutes, we'd be headin' in the terminal gate

Swing low chariot, come down easy, taxi to the terminal zone

Cut your engines, 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 callin' and the poor boy's on the line