In from the coast, riding like the wind and racing the moon,
Shadows on the road, dancing and a-weaving like a crazy fool.
A horseman is coming, death in his heart, for a rendezvous,
And where the traveller goes, nobody knows,
Where the traveller goes, nobody knows.;
A candle in the night, fear on every face when he goes inside,
"Maybe he's on the run,"
Get back from the bar, a stranger in town is a dangerous sight,
"Maybe he's got a gun,"
"Bring a bottle of whisky landlord, I want to talk for a while,"
And where the traveller goes, a cold wind blows,
Where the traveller goes, a cold wind blows,
There is something in his eyes, something in his hands,
You can almost smell his revenge,
And whoever he is after, it will be disaster,
This man is gonna take him to the very end;
Well the landlord he trembled, staring at a face he'd seen somewhere before,
"You laid him in the ground,"
Suddenly remembered a killing, yes a murder many years before,
"'T was you that shot him down,"
He said to a boy, "Saddle me the black, I'll meet you down below,
With this man I must talk, with this traveller I'll go,
With this man I must talk, yes with him I must go,
There is something in his eyes, something in his hands,
I can almost smell his revenge,
And it's me that he's after, it will be disaster,
This man is gonna take me to the very end,"
And they were never seen again...
"I was writing this song one day and it felt like somebody moving, somebody riding. I think this song was before I wrote 'Don't Pay The Ferryman'. Horses, you see, have always been part of my background and indeed before cars they were the only way of getting around. So they are very much part of our feelings and our nature. Then I saw a movie called 'High Plains Drifter' with Clint Eastwood, where this man comes into town. The people at the town treat him really badly and he comes back as a nemesis some time later, having been badly beaten up. And he takes out the people who have done such terrible things to him. It's a story of revenge and I think it's something that appeals to most people. Not that they are going to go and shoot and kill lots of people who of course have done bad things in the past, but revenge is a very powerful human emotion. And that's what 'The Traveller' is all about, it's about revenge and what happens next."
