I took a train

A1.
I took a train (she took a train)
because I could not stand a plane
(she took a train) I took a train
because I just refuse to use an automobile.

A2.
I took a train (she took a train)
the time and place, I am not sayin'
(she took a train) I took a train
I think I dreamed through Mississippi with Lucille.

A3.
I took a train (she took a train)
I do not think it has a name
(she took a train) I took a train
I cannot say this train is actually really real.

B1.
I took a train (she took a train)
To see America once again
To see America
eye to eye
one more day

C1.
There's no conductor on the train
No sacks of mail, just pouring rain
Washing the outside world away

C2.
How far we'll go, I could not say
This train is burning yesterday
This train is burning yesterday

B2.
Get a drink at the bar
And from the observation car
I see America
city by city
fade away

I see America
city by city [town by town, field by field, depending on how many times we've sung this thing]
fade away

etc.

[[

I hope the song works regardless of anything you know beforehand, but the plan is:

1. It's a train song, but a train on no real line. Lucille is and isn't B.B. King's guitar. This train got the disappeared railroad blues, which is why it's got no conductors or mail, and it's burning yesterday.

2. Maybe "he" or "she" makes little difference to the song (except for slight possible implications about Lucille), but it might be interesting to think of Gladys Knight (and the Pips singing "she...") in a duet with... Willie Nelson? Ha! Midnight Train to New Orleans. Or maybe this should be a Bonnie Raitt song.

2. The Pips are parenthetical (woo! woo!), as in https://genius.com/Gladys-knight-and-the-pips-midnight-train-to-georgia-lyrics  

This is not a script for a video, but if it were, imagine we picked up Willie and friends along the way, let him sing his piece (Cx) with or without Gladys as we take the train through middle America, drop him off, and then let Gladys and Co. have that drink (B2) as the train heads into the sunset and for the coast.

I don't know whether she's leaving America behind or America itself is fading away or both or whether it's all a simple bottle of nostalgia and silliness. If it was a video, they would be at the back of a train heading west, in an ornate observation car watching the setting sun shine on America before it heads over the Pacific... ]]