Ballad Of Thunder Road:Robert Mitchum. #62 on BB Hot 100 on U/A Records in 1958. #1. Let me tell the story, I can tell it all. About the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol. His daddy made the whiskey, son, he drove the load. When his engine roared, they called the highway Thunder Road. #2. Sometimes into Ashville, sometimes Memphis town. The revenuers chased him but they couldn't run him down. Each time they thought they had him, his engine would explode. He'd go by like they were standin' still on Thunder Road. And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road. Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load. There was moonshine, moonshine, to quench the Devil's thirst. The law they swore they'd get him, but the Devil got him first. #3. On the first of April, nineteen fifty-four.. a Federal man sent word he'd better make his run no more. He said, two hundred agents were coverin' the state. Whichever road he tried to take, they'd get him sure as fate. #4. Son, his Daddy told him, make this run your last. The tank is filled with hundred-proof, you're all tuned up and gassed. Now, don't take any chances, if you can't get through. I'd rather have you back again than all that mountain dew. And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road. Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load. There was moonshine, moonshine, to quench the Devil's thirst. The law they swore they'd get him, but the Devil got him first. #5. Roarin' out of Harlan, revvin' up his mil..he shot the gap at Cumberland, and screamed by Maynardville. With T-men on his taillights, roadblocks up ahead.. the mountain boy took roads that even Angels feared to tred. #6. Blazing right through Knoxville, out on Kingston Pike, then right outside of Bearden, they made the fatal strike. He left the road at ninety, that's all there is to say. The devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy that day. And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road. Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load. There was moonshine, moonshine, to quench the Devil's thirst. The law they never got him, cause the Devil got him first. The law they never got him, cause the Devil got him first. (Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Road.) A fifties smash from Kraziekhat.