My great-granddaddy come in with an axe on his back Nothing out here but the trees and the dark He cut a line through it one swing at a time Wide enough for a mule and a man That line's a road now, that road's got a name Ain't got his name on it, all the same But that's how the whole thing began Dust to the devil Stone to the sky Road to the man And the man's gonna die Lay it down, lay it down Lay it down anyhow Granddaddy laid ties for the railroad men Eight to a length and a mile in a day Big hammer ringing and the swing coming back again Hands you could read like a page but you can't read what they say They blew that hill open, they filled the low ground Twelve men went in and eleven come round And nobody stopped to pray Dust to the devil Stone to the sky Road to the man And the man's gonna die Lay it down, lay it down Lay it down anyhow I met a man sitting out on the shoulder Where the old road runs under the new Said I poured that stretch when I was younger and bolder Cracked to hell now and the green coming through I said old man, that don't sit right with me He said son, that's all it's ever gonna be Somebody's got to lay it, might as well be you So I run the roller and I breathe the tar Hundred and four in the shade of the truck Orange on my back and I don't get far Just up and back and up and back and hope for a little luck Four lanes wide where the mule track was And my boy's gonna tear it out because That's just the way it work Dust to the devil Stone to the sky Road to the man And the man's gonna die Lay it down, lay it down Lay it down anyhow Lay it down, lay it down I'm laying it down right now And the road keeps going And the road don't care And my name ain't nowhere on it My name ain't nowhere on it
