Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
“Tunnel 13” is the sixth track of Mark Knopfler’s 2024 album. One Deep River. It tells the story of the DeAutremont brothers, a criminal sibling gang who’s known for their unsuccessful robbery of a Southern Pacific Railroad express train and four-person murder in 1923.
The title refers to the tunne...
[Verse 1]
In the Siskiyou Mountains the old railroad winds
Through the golds of the maples and the green of the pines
Up to Tunnel 13 the Southern she climbs
And three bandits waiting with evil in mind
[Verse 2]
The D’Autremont brothers had chosen their road
Chosen to live by a criminal code
Word was the mailcar was loaded with gold
The brothers had heard it, or had maybe been told
[Bridge]
They wanted no witnesses, that was a fact
The brothers were bent on a barbarous act
Gold there was none, only sadness and tears
And the law coming after them year after year
[Verse 3]
Three bandits, hearts filled with resentment and hate
Killed mail clerk Elvyn Daugherty, engineer Sydney Bates
With shotgun and pistols they were panicking when
They killed brakeman Coyle Johnson and fireman Marvin Seng
[Verse 4]
Robbing and looting is as old as the hills
They’re still jumping freight trains with crowbars and drills
A hundred years later in Downtown LA
They rob the Union Pacific damn near every day
[Outro]
Four good men lay murdered in the dogwoods and pines
Leaving widows and children and heartbreak behind
Tunnel 13 is the place in the song
Where the beautiful redwood for my guitar came from
[Instrumental Outro]
Tunnel 13 was written by Mark Knopfler.
Tunnel 13 was produced by Mark Knopfler & Guy Fletcher.
Mark Knopfler released Tunnel 13 on Fri Apr 12 2024.