This Train Don't Stop There Anymore

Album: Songs from the West Coast (2001)
Charted: 24
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  • You may not believe it
    But I don't believe in miracles anymore
    And when I think about it
    I don't believe I ever did for sure
    All the things I've said in songs
    All the purple prose you bought from me
    Reality's just black and white
    The sentimental things I'd write
    Never meant that much to me

    I used to be the main express
    All steam and whistles heading west
    Picking up my pain from door to door
    Riding on the storyline, furnace burning overtime
    But this train don't stop
    This train don't stop
    This train don't stop there anymore

    You don't need to hear it
    But I'm dried-up and sick to death of love
    If you need to know it
    I never really understood that stuff
    All the stars and bleeding hearts
    All the tears that welled up in my eyes
    Never meant a thing to me
    Read 'em as they say and weep
    I never felt enough to cry

    I used to be the main express
    All steam and whistles heading west
    Picking up my pain from door to door
    Riding on the storyline, furnace burning overtime
    But this train don't stop
    This train don't stop
    This train don't stop there anymore

    When I say that I don't care
    It really means my engine's breaking down
    The chisel chips my heart again
    The granite cracks beneath my skin
    I crumble into pieces on the ground

    I used to be the main express
    All steam and whistles heading west
    Picking up my pain from door to door
    Riding on the storyline, furnace burning overtime
    But this train don't stop
    This train don't stop
    This train don't stop there anymore

    But this train don't stop
    This train don't stop
    This train don't stop there anymore

    Oh, yeah Writer/s: Bernard J.P. Taupin, Elton John
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 1

  • Johan from LondonThis is a defining song for Elton John. It is not just about the artist’s career but also about realising that the stories we string together about our own life, the sentimental words (‘purple prose’, a term from Horace), the pursuit of love, drama, highs and lows, are superficial in the end. Reality is black and white, love is simple and honest when it’s real and anything else destroys the heart. The song is about becoming real, no longer stopping at certain stations, saying no to what you know to be lies. It’s linked to Goodbye Yellow-Brick Road but here the critique is of the writing business, of writing one’s life, itself. Nice detail in the video is that Timberlake wears a black and white suit, and rose spectacles.
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