Now Bensenville is a train yard over in Chicago
And the bumpers y'all well that's just the coupling
Between the freight cars
And Calay is California that's what that mean
And the choke picker that someone who picks artichokes
Now you got the story y'all

Do you hear St. Louis Slim lost a leg
He just outside Bensenville
For some damn reason he was riding on the bumpers
Act like a young man will

And now the last we spoke he was going down to Memphis
Said he got himself a girl
Said going queer, riding these rails
Give himself back to the world

But me I'm going down out to Calay
And I believe that we're I first met him?
So bo' let's put our coins together
And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim?

Well, alright

I hear the looking for choke pickers out in Watsonville
Your welcome to tag along
And maybe someday when I'm old and gray
I'll write this XXXX down in a song

But in the meantime I'm going out to Calay
I believe that where I first met him
So bo' let's put our coins together
And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim

And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim
And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim
And drink a bottle to St. Louis' sleeve
You remember him, you remember him

But in the meantime I'm going out to Calay
I believe that we're both but him?
So bo' let's put our coins together
And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim

And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim
And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim
And drink a bottle to St. Louis Slim
And drink a bottle to St. Louis

One bottle to St. Louis
One bottle to St. Louis Slim