Boomer's Story is the third studio album by American roots rock musician Ry Cooder, released in November 1972.
"The Dark End of the Street", co-written by Dan Penn and Chips Moman, is originally known as a recording by James Carr, but in this album it is presented as a guitar-driven instrumental. The album also features "Sweet Mama" and "President Kennedy", both written by Sleepy John Estes, with Estes himself performing lead vocals on the latter. Estes's parts were recorded in Collierville, Tennessee.
The piano on "Rally 'Round the Flag" is played by Randy Newman.
The title track was previously recorded as "The Railroad Boomer" by Bud Billings (aka Frank Luther) and Carson Robison in a performance recorded at the studio at Liederkranz Hall in New York on September 9, 1929 (Victor V-40139). Although it is credited on Cooder's album as "traditional," Robison was awarded a copyright and the song "can't be shown to have circulated in oral tradition." Gene Autry recorded it in December of the same year. In the 1930s the song was recorded for Decca Records by the Rice Brothers' Gang, in 1939 by Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys, in 1941 by Riley Puckett for RCA, and in the 1950s by Cisco Houston (as "The Rambler") and by the New Lost City Ramblers, who included Cooder's guitar teacher Tom Paley.