Sunrise lights the city where once stood a small tienda And stucco walled hotels can tell of all we have gained But here and there stands a grand adobe hacienda And now then, a graveyard filled with Spanish-sounding names. The highways cut the trees down, and the outlaws stole the land And the California Zephyr lies a sleeping And we're told the days are numbered, till we lose the giant redwoods And you can almost hear the Earth beneath you weeping
But when you're standing by the trestle Can't you hear a ghostly whistle And the breathing of an engine pulling into Monterey? It's the California Zephyr, whose headlight has forever burned its brand upon the mist to face the California day
Rolling fields and pastures lay for miles around Salinas Too soon the rows of houses will lay claim to all you see And who can show their children, those small adobe casas? And the families toiling in their fields beside the sea The evening lights of San Jose, once humbled by the stars And the strolling troubadour, with guitar ringing. They've all vanished with flashing neon lights and shining cars But the memory sets the rusty rails a singing
And when you are standing by the trestle Can't you hear a ghostly whistle And the breathing of an engine pulling into San Jose? It's the California Zephyr, whose headlight has forever Burned its brand upon the mist to face the California day
Southern California, where the hills roll to the sea And the schemes of men with vision choked the life out of the land There's a shroud upon the valleys where a blue sky used to be And the oil along the shoreline covers up the golden sand But the City of the Angels and the path the padres trod Somehow it held its beauty from days of old And Spanish tongues still whisper to a Spanish-speaking God And the ghosts of dreamers roam the hills for gold
And when you're standing by the trestle Can't you hear a ghostly whistle And the breathing of an engine pulling into old LA? It's the California Zephyr, whose headlight has forever Burned its brand upon the mist to face the California day