By Kyle "Addison Beauchamp" Soyer and Nathan "Captain McCallen" Ford
See a live performance on YouTube at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF9JqdxcegU&list=PLDOWp9ZKxauVobdH8jWSc9GhTJF42bohh&index=1
Inspired by Brendan "Lucky" Best's "Chain Gang" and the Pueblano staff of 2012. Watch it here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObaYfwaZM_0
The lyrics of "The Company Bible" are almost entirely railroad slang, and relate to injuries easily suffered by a careless a track worker.
Shaker: one who holds the spike while someone else sets it with a sledge or hand maul.
Lunch hooks: hands
Get your head cut in: wise up
Gandy dancer: track laborer. The name might be a reference to "the gander-like" movements of men tamping ties, or fomr the Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago which made a variety of railroading tools.
Watch your pins: Be careful around stacks of ties, rails, and other materials
Shining time: Starting time
Pull freight: To leave or give up a job
Last call: Death
Indian Valley Line: An imaginary railroad on which one could always find a good job and ideal working conditions, often said to be at the end of the rainbow.The term is sometimes used to mean death or railroader's heaven.
Pike: railroad
Flat-wheel: Car-wheel that has flat spots on the tread, or an employee who limps
Fish plate: Joint bar, used to connect sticks of rail.
Bull pin: Tool used to align the bolt holes of two joint bars with the bolt holes of a piece of rail. These were used instead of fingers, because just touching a rail could sometimes release enough tension to cause instant thermal expansion or contraction, sometimes forcibly removing said finger.
from
Live From Metcalf Station!,
released September 14, 2014
Kyle "Addison Beauchamp" Soyer: lead vocals, backing vocals
Nathan "Captain McCallen" Ford: lead vocals, backing vocals
Travis "Two-Foot" Scherschel: spike maul, backing vocals
Matthew "Sim Webb" Hauser: lining bar, backing vocals
Weston "Paddy" Mate: sledge maul, backing vocals
Tucker "Rusty"Baker: spike and tie plate, backing vocals