It was just after dark
When the truck started down
The hill that leads into
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Carrying 30,000 pounds of bananas
Carrying 30,000 pounds (hit it, Big John!)
(Of bananas)
He was a young driver
Just out on his second job
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
For everyone in that coal-scarred city
Where children play without despair
In backyard slagpiles
And folks manage to eat each day
About 30,000 pounds of bananas
Yes, just about 30,000 pounds (scream it again, John)
(Of bananas)
He passed a sign that he should have seen
Saying "Shift to low gear
A fifty dollar fine, my friend"
He was thinking, perhaps, about the warm-breathed woman
Who was waiting at the journey's end
He started down the two mile drop
The curving road that wound from the top of the hill
He was pushing on through the shortening miles
That ran down to the depot
Just a few more miles to go
Then he'd go home and have her ease his long cramped day away
From the smell of 30, 000 pounds of bananas
Yes, the smell of 30, 000 pounds of bananas
He was picking up speed as the city spread
Its twinkling lights below him
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts
Of the night's delights went through him
His foot nursed the brakes to slow him down
But the pedal floored easy without a sound
He said, "Christ!"
It was funny how he named
The only man who could save him now
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide
Riding on his fear-hunched back
Was every one of those yellow-green
I'm tellin' ya, 30, 000 pounds of bananas
Yes, there were 30, 000 pounds of bananas
He barely made the sweeping curve
That led into the steepest grade
And he missed the thankful passing bus
At ninety miles an hour
And he said, "God, make it a dream!"
As he rode his last track down
He said, "God, make it a dream!"
As he rode his last track down
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars
Clipped off thirteen telephone poles
Hit two houses, bruised eight trees
And Blue Crossed seven people
It was then he lost his head
Not to mention an arm or two, before he stopped
And he smeared for four hundred yards
Along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania
Almost 30, 000 pounds
Of bananas
You know, the man who told me about it on the bus
Says "It went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania"
He shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head
And he said (and this is exactly what he said)
"Boy, it sure must have been something
Just imagine 30, 000 pounds of bananas
Yes, there were 30, 000 pounds
Of mashed bananas"
Of bananas
Of bananas
Just bananas
Thirty thousand pounds
Of bananas
Not no driver now
Just bananas!