In the long days of the summertime
Outside a prairie town.
Near a mixed farm in Saskatchewan,
Our story is set down.
A matriarch of seven
Has a tale you can't match.
It begins when she set out
To check on her potato patch.
T'wards an unmarked intersection
Shaded by brush and pine
Came the pride of the Dominion,
The Canadian Pacific line.
Her spuds grew on the other side,
And Laila she did stop,
But her gaze was stolen by the sight
Of a bumper berry crop.
When she saw that train a bearing down
She pinned pedal to the floor.
But that beast still caught the tailgate
Of her silver half-ton Ford.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
Spared of the fate of men
Whose lives that iron horse has claimed.
Though the impact was brutal
Her soul that day was saved.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
In the farmyard stood a witness
Who knew our lady fine.
To her he vowed in earnest
In the fall of '49.
As he watched the train advancing
Worry took hold of his heart.
For he feared today would be the day
That death would do them part.
When the cacophony of wreckage
Echoed through the countryside
Her dear husband wondered
Could Laila have survived?
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
Spared of the fate of men
Whose lives that iron horse has claimed.
Though the impact was brutal
Her soul that day was saved.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
A machine can bear no malice,
Mercy, grief or wrath.
And few can tell of how
They've crossed a locomotive's path.
So when the engineer stepped out
Into the dusty air
He swore to god repentance
For an answer to his prayer.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
Spared of the fate of men
Whose lives that iron horse has claimed.
Though the impact was brutal
Her soul that day was saved.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.
Laila Sady Johnson wasn't beaten by no train.