Monkey and the Engineer Songtext
von Grateful Dead

From the song about tragedy intending
Uh, we′re going to move swiftly to a song about tragedy
Tragedy narrowly averted
It's another in our long list of tragedy songs
But this one is a tragedy, narrowly averted
It goes like this
(One, two, three, four)

Once upon a time there was a engineer
Drove a locomotive both far and near
Accompanied by a monkey who would sit on a stool
Watching everything the engineer would do

One day, the engineer wanted a bite to eat
He left the monkey sitting on the driver′s seat
The monkey pulled the throttle, the locomotive jumped the gun
And did 90 miles an hour down the mainline run

Big locomotive right on time
Big locomotive coming down the line
Big locomotive number 99
Left the engineer with a worried mind


The engineer called up the dispatcher on the phone
Tell him all about his locomotive was gone
Get on the wire, switch operator to the right
'Cause the monkey's got the main line sewed up tight

Switch operator got the message in time
Said there′s a Northbound livin′ on the same main line
Open up the switch, I'm gonna let him through the hole
′Cause the monkey's got the locomotive under control

Big locomotive right on time
Big locomotive coming down the line
Big locomotive number 99
Left the engineer with a worried mind

Worried mind
Worried mind

Big locomotive right on time
Big locomotive coming down the line
Big locomotive number 99
Left the engineer with a worried mind

Left the engineer with a worried mind
Left the engineer with a worried mind