Swing! (Hah!) Swing! (Hah!)
One spike, one name, one woman, one claim
Fourteen foot of rail before the sun's out of flame
Swing! (Hah!) Swing! (Hah!)
Steel don't forget and the steel don't forgive
Rail spike rosary, count it while I live (Hey!)

Eighteen seventy-one, Odessa hauling water to the crew
Husband swinging nine pounds when the heat came through
He went down in the red clay with the hammer in his hand
Odessa picked it up while the foreman tried to stand
Foreman laughed and said, "Woman, that's no work for a lady"
She said, "Sir, a dollar says I'll beat you, and I'm not shady"
He swung ten spikes by noon, she swung fourteen by two
Foreman's out of dollars, and the crew says, "Whoo!"
He paid her in a nickel and a stare he couldn't hide
She paid him in a swing that knocked him off his pride
Track went down to Kudzu County, and it's still there today
Every rail's a fingerprint she never signed away

Who laid the track?
(Odessa!)
Who held the line?
(Odessa!)
Who swung it when the man went down?
(Odessa, and she don't need your sound!)

Hammer up, hammer high
Three (three!), two (two!)
One...
Swing!

Swing! (Hah!) Swing! (Hah!)
Ten thousand backs bending, one spine standing tall
Every tie I'm laying got a grandmother's call
Swing! (Hah!) Swing! (Hah!)
Sparks on the ballast, sparks in her eyes
Rail spike rosary, and the whole line cries (Hey!)

Now the freight comes through at two a.m. and rattles all the plates
I press my palm against the wall and feel the old steel's weight
Railroad man in a lanyard wants the right-of-way
I said, "Sir, my kin built your right, and the way's gonna stay"
He slides a check across the hood with a lot of zeros on it
I drove a spike through the check and the hood, and I didn't flinch a minute
Crossing guard blinking red like a lazy devil's eye
Every train that passes gives a nod, and every whistle's a reply
Ghost of a hammer in the ballast, I can hear it keep the time
One-two, one-two, one-two, and the rhyme's a crime
Odessa in the pavement, Odessa in the gravel
Odessa in the shadow of every train I travel
She never got a statue, never got a street
Got a spike in the ground right under your feet

Check the next tie, county, there's a name in the iron, and it ain't yours!

Swing! (Hah!) Swing! (Hah!)
One spike, one name, one woman, one flame
Odessa's in the iron, and the iron knows her name
Swing! (Hah!) Swing! (Hah!)
Steel don't forget and the steel don't forgive
Rail spike rosary, count it while I live (Hey!)

One swing!