Stop This Train Lyrics
No, I'm not color blind
I know the world is black and white
I try to keep an open mind
But, I just can't sleep on this tonight
[Chorus]
Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?
[Verse 2]
Don't know how else to say it
Don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own
[Chorus]
Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?
[Verse 3]
So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun
[Bridge 1]
Had a talk with my old man
Said, "Help me understand"
He said, "Turn 68, you'll renegotiate"
[Chorus]
"Don't stop this train
Don't, for a minute, change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly, we'll never stop this train"
[Bridge 2]
Once in a while, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And they're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
'Til you cry when you're driving away in the dark
About
“Stop This Train” is the 7th track on 2006’s Continuum and is about coming to terms with the unstoppable march of time, as well as mortality.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
It’s [regarding the song] definitely the most emotionally confrontational. Time is moving forward all time and we know that, but it’s like running out of a continually burning hallway and you can’t go back and get your stuff and all I want to do is yell ‘I want to go get my stuff!!!’ and people go ‘You can’t. Keep running!!!’ This fireball’s coming up behind you, it’s not exactly as Indiana Jones as that, but it feels like that some times. Stop This Train is a song begging to go back. I played it for me parents and they pretended not to hear any of the lines, which I think is pretty much trademark parents. It was actually a really good friend of mine, James Valentine, from the band Maroon 5 who came in and helped by play some acoustic guitar on this song.
—John Mayer in a 2006 interview with eMUSICPOST.