Well in the heat of day down in Mobile, Alabama I'm workin' on the railroad with a steel drivin hammer I gotta get some money buy some brand new shoes gotta find somebody take away my blues well she don't love me when I'm singin' in the sun payday's comin' when the work is all done
Well now late here in the evening when the sun is sinkin low all day I've been waitin' for that whistle to blow sitting in a teepee built right on here on the tracks rolling them bones until the foreman comes back pick up your belongings boys and scattere about we've got an off shedule train comin two miles out
everybody's scrambling and a running around picking up their money tearing the teepee down foreman wants to panic, bout to go insane trying to get the workers out the way of the train engineer blows the whistle loud and long can't stop the train gotta let it roll on
"Bye Bye Johnny" Well now she drew out all of the money of Southern Trust and put her little Johnny on a Greybound Bus Leavin' Louisiana for the golden west drowned in the tears from her happiness her own little son named Johnny B Goode gonna make some motion pictures out in Hollywood
I said bye, bye, bye, bye I said bye, bye, bye, bye bye bye Johnny, goodbye Johnny B Goode
Well she remembers taking money after gathering crops and buying Johnny's guitar at the brokers shop as long as he would play it by the railroad site he wouldn't get in trouble she was satisfied well she never knew there would come a day like this when she'd have to give Johnny a good bye kiss
I said bye, bye, bye, bye I said bye, bye, bye, bye bye bye Johnny, goodbye Johnny B Goode
Well now she finally got the letter she'd been dreaming of when Johnny wrote and told her he had done fell in love as soon as he was married he'd bring her back and build a mansion for her by the railroad trck and every time you heard that locomotive roar she'd be standing there waiting at the kitchen door
I said bye, bye, bye, bye I said bye, bye, bye, bye