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He sat in the room wrapped in hessian and calico
Expected to follow in the steps of his father
Who didn't hold his breath cos he knew down inside
He'd be waiting right down to the end.
But times in his hometown they weren't always rosy
History had wrote that with wealth musty come poverty
So he hitched on the freight train in search for his destiny
Which called for him right down to the end
Bright lights are bigger than candles in vases
So he followed them East but only scraped a mean living
Singing ballads on stages shared with jugglers and performing dogs
Had he sank right down to the end?
And there's a whole world behind, that big wide brimmed smile that he's wearing
The thoughts in his head are coming up too fast to down
No matter what, he's seen it an' done it an' been there and back again
But he won't complain, ask him once again, how he's doing
He'll answer you fine, right down to the end.
The steamship set off passing the torch that stood for liberty
And freedom and all of the other things that he was yearning for
He knew that he'd find them, if it took an eternity
He'd keep searching right down to the end
The passage was heavy but it didn't seem to worry him
All men are sailors if they stick at it long enough
While the passengers around him were ill in their hammocks
He felt at ease right down to the end
New York was frozen but the temperature in England
Was such that he cast off his winter coat and muffler
He warmed to the people, their warm hospitality
He could stay there right down to the end
He hung out in bars much the same as he'd left behind
But all views are different if you look at them through foreign eyes
He was happy. for the time, he was living in paradise
He could stay there right down to the end.
But once that a mans feet have stood on the open road
There's something inside that makes him wanna move for evermore
Sometimes it got lonely, but then he met a girl
Who vowed she'd follow him right down to the end.
He put the ring on her finger and his eyes said he loved her
She knew from that gaze that there'd never be another
When the priest asked "d'you promise that it'll last forever"?
He answered "right down to the end".
They fin'ly made it back home where they planned to start a family
Like their parents before them but some things aren't meant to be
Though no children came, they kept loving time and time again
They kept trying right down to the end.
I don't know how but he was left on his own again
Maybe divorce or a motor car accident
The only thing that matters after everything's been said and done
Is if you're silent right down to the end.
I met him last week when he talked about his broken past
The folk heroes, rough riders, kings and queens and senators
I asked "when'll you stop"? He said "it's all I know.
I'll keep going right down to the end".