9. It’s immensely visceral: we can hear the train rolling, can hear its whistle. Complete song listing of Train on OLDIES.com. 10. Eleven men died so the mail could get to Spencer on time. Boyce and Hart, and their band, the Candy Store Prophets, played much of the music on the Monkees albums. American rock band Train has released 10 studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, one video album, four extended plays, 34 singles, six promotional singles, and 29 music videos.The band … To place an order or for customer service, call toll-free 1-800-336-4627 or outside the United States, call 1-610-649-7565 “Midnight Train to Georgia,” by Jim Weatherly. Produced and arranged by Uncle Jim O'Neal for his Rural Rhythm record label, 25 Classic Train Songs collects more than a dozen old-timey bluegrass takes on classic American train songs, most of them … But also Clapton, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, the Doors, the Dead . 5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Old Favorite. “The Ballad of Casey Jones, or, The Brave Engineer.” Another legendary song about a legendary wreck. it translates. This song from Newman’s immortal 1988 album, Land of Dreams, tells the story of a trip with his mother back home to New Orleans from Los Angeles, while his father was fighting in World War II. . Madagascar reckons with an invasive crayfish, Morality is often reduced to choices, and imperfect choices at that. Popularized by Arlo Guthrie, it’s not only a song about trains, but also a pretty good one about deindustrialization. Scoff at it, hate it, love it, add to it — you’ll probably be right. She became part of the folk revival in her sixties, made enough money to buy her family a house, and won a Grammy in 1984. And it seems I’m too old … 2. 16. 22. Favorite train videos for kids as well as adults from our famous series "Lots & Lots of Trains" that you'll want to watch over and over again!. Yes, it’s a show tune. A train was always going over it, but the observing character always remained. A late edition to this list, courtesy of Nick Royal, who wrote me a note after reading my Harper’s Magazine feature on trains. Trains were also easy metaphors for popular songs, signifying arrivals, departures, and other key stops on the long journey of life, and nothing, it has been said, makes a more lonesome sound than a far-off train whistle late at night. “Dixie Flyer,” by Randy Newman. An incredible story, Cotton, a black woman, was a left-handed, self-taught guitarist who played bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. The main verses go back to at least 1894, and likely much earlier. Originally a blues song. Once again, there are kick-ass versions by Leadbelly and Johnny Cash, while Lonnie Donegan released a sped-up version that set off the skiffle craze in England in 1954. 5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for help finding words to an old train song. + Tony Rice song lyrics . But this swings. Dear Old … This intriguing collection of train songs recorded between the 1920s and the 1950s shows … “Paddy on the Railway.” A work song, obviously a converted sea chantey, about Irish immigrants building the railroad out to California. “Last Train to Clarksville,” by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. The train and its surroundings have been immortalized in folks songs, tall tales (John Henry) and the like and naturally the themes have proven to be ripe for the picking whether you're a … . Or the old Chicago and Alton Railroad’s Midnight Special between Chicago and St. Louis (which, as the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, ran the last, regularly scheduled Pullman sleeping car in 1971.). Old train I can hear your whistle blow. The 20 Best Songs About Trains “Stop This Train” by John Mayer (2006) “Peace Train” by Yusuf/ Cat Stevens (1971) “Train Wreck” by James Arthur (2016) “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne … “Casey Jones,” Jerry Garcia (music), Robert Hunter (words). Probably the most well-known cover, though, was performed by Woody Guthrie. “Folsom Prison Blues,” by Johnny Cash. There’s a famous version Joan Baez sang live in England, but I’d go with Peter, Paul and Mary’s version, or Rosanne Cash’s. It did, originally — one dating back as far as the 1830s, with “Dinah” a generic term for a female slave. Get Access to Print and Digital for $23.99. Watch Train Songs - Alan Hijazi on Dailymotion. The song was written in tribute by Casey’s friend Wallace Saunders, a black “engine wiper” who sung it to an older folk tune known as “Jimmie Jones.” Within a couple of years it became a vaudeville and concert hall favorite, but Saunders supposedly received only a bottle of gin for his efforts. But it also speaks to the heart of how we feel about trains, that pang we feel when we see them taking other people to other places — even if you’re not in prison. There was no Wabash Cannonball; it seems to have been a bit of hobo mythology, maybe about a “death train” carrying souls to the afterlife. First set down in 1882, this is probably the only song about a train for which a train was eventually named. Thanks, Nick! . Yes, I know it’s about prison. “Wabash Cannonball,” by J. Forgot your password? Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2015. 8tracks radio. It was the centennial of this event that inspired a song about the train, though, “Lincoln’s Funeral Train,” by Norman Blake (see this catalog record). Lomax credited it to Kelly Pace, the convict who sang it for him, but it’s almost undoubtedly older than that. 4. .”, 15. Lots of fun — trains as a metaphor for the long run of life without life, including specific mentions of the Illinois Central and the Southern Central Freight. “Rock Island Line.” The great folk archivist Alan Lomax first captured a recording of this song on an Arkansas prison farm in 1934. Sure, there’s Elvis. Wade Mainer & the Sons of the Mountaineers, Convicts Of Bellwood Prison Camp, Atlanta GA. . To Houston. 7. The 59 Best Songs For The Soul Train Line At Your Family Reunion. I do NOT have lyrics, sheet music, copies or any details more than what you see in the list. In the 21st century the train retains all its power as an image of personal renewal, but has now also become a symbol itself of an earlier time, a less frenzied time when things appeared to have been easier to comprehend. Old Train. And the whole “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah” part that seems like it comes from another tune? That concept is an illusion, of course, because the most difficult time to comprehend is and always will be right now. Pete Seeger claimed the “Dinah won’t you blow” part was added much later, by college students. While working in a department store, she helped find a lost child of Pete Seeger’s — and the rest was history. Subscribers can find additional help here. "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" dates itself in the period 1841-47; it became a folk­ song at least a cen tury ago. It may have been inspired instead by the Missouri Pacific’s Houstonian, which left Houston around midnight and rolled by the Sugar Land penitentiary where Leadbelly was imprisoned. “The Wreck of the Old 97.” Reportedly, Vernon Delhart made this America’s first million-selling country-music hit, in 1924, although David Graves George, one of the first people to actually reach the wreck site, made a long and dogged fight in court to claim the song was his. Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 1999. The song seems to have been adapted from a minstrel-show favorite. It’s not true, as the song’s lyrics state, that Broady was going 90 miles an hour; this was a lie propagated by the railroad, which tried to blame the crash on its engineer. Really: outside of the basics — sex, death, love, God, food, dances, and drugs — have so many popular songs ever been written about anything else? 17. - stream 5 train songs playlists including Train, Dock Boggs, and Johnny Cash music from your desktop or mobile device. “This Train Is Bound for Glory.” First recorded in the 1920s, this traditional American gospel song became a hit for the influential gospel and blues singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in 1939. “500 Miles.” No, not the Proclaimers song from that Johnny Depp movie. Trains have been a theme in both traditional and popular music since the first half of the 19th century and over the years have appeared in all major musical genres, including folk, blues, country, rock, jazz, world, classical and avant-garde. Written by Fred Rose to an old country tune and first recorded by bluegrass immortals Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, here is Nick’s favorite version, with Sam Bush on mandolin. 3. 13. “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe,” music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer. John Luther “Casey” Jones was filling in for a sick engineer on April 30, 1900, trying to make up time for the Illinois Central’s New Orleans Special out of Memphis. . But it also speaks to the heart … From Johnny Cash to “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”, “Ascending the Alleghanies,” Harper’s Magazine (June 1859). After telling his fireman to jump, Jones clung to the brake, miraculously slowing his train enough so that he was the only one killed. The train’s engineer, a thirty-three-year-old named Joseph “Steve” Broady, had been ordered to put on speed by his bosses at the Southern Railway, who were concerned about keeping the company’s U.S. Mail contract. https://smart-union.org/news/the-23-best-train-songs-ever-written "Folsom Prison Blues," Johnny Cash. Folk, rock, blues, big band, gospel, show tunes, skiffle, bluegrass, Newgrass — you name it. 18. Locked out of your account? Grayson and Henry Whitter's poignant and disarmingly offhand "He's Coming to Us Dead" (bodies of the deceased were frequently shipped by train to hometowns for burial in the early 1900s), and Uncle Dave Macon's "Death of John Henry," complete with his trademark bubbling banjo work. (It was Peter, Paul and Mary who changed “Chestnut Street” to “Bleecker Street” in their version.). 6. “Folsom Prison Blues,” by Johnny Cash. . Apparently it has become a very popular nursery rhyme in Japan, entitled, much more elegiacally, “The railroad continues forever.”. Few opening lines in popular music history grab the listener's … ... 5.0 out of 5 stars Old Train, … Who hasn’t done a version? Get help here. But it is true that “They found him in the wreck with his hand on the throttle / Scalded to death by the steam.” Most of the mail burned, too — but the Southern Railway unceremoniously rehabilitated the engine and ran it for another thirty-two years. The crash occurred when the 97 failed to negotiate a curve on a forty-five-foot-high wooden trestle outside Danville, Virginia. This intriguing collection of train songs recorded between the 1920s and the 1950s shows how deeply the train figured in popular song, sweeping across the genres from country to jazz. MP3 (It was in any case set to the music of an older folk favorite, Henry Clay Work’s 1865 “The Ship That Never Returned.”) The song told of the September 27, 1903, crash of the Old 97, a.k.a., “the Fast Mail,” which ran between Monroe, Virginia, and Spencer, North Carolina, and had legendarily never once been late. While the prominence of railroads in the United States has faded in recent decades, the train endures as a common image in popular song. “Freight Train, Freight Train,” by Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten. Songs must have some kind of reference to railroads,a railroad or railroad equipment in the lyrics. .” O-kay. Yes, there’s that offensive and anachronistic shout-out to a shoeshine “boy” at the beginning. Deal with it. Hart even tried to confirm the urban myth, though he also admitted the song’s geographical inspiration was Clarksdale, Arizona, and that he’d been influenced by the chorus of the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer,” which he heard as “Take the last train . Work songs, ballads recounting riveting exploits, and instrumental echoes of the once familiar sounds of the steam locomotive have enshrined the railroad in our musical memory. This might rank higher, if it had anything to do with trains. “The Midnight Special.” An old, old folk song, the words first written down by Howard Odum in 1905, and first recorded in the 1920s. The first hit single, in 1966, for that marvelous TV mock-up of a rock group, The Monkees. Report abuse. Railroad" ("Dinah") goes back to pre-Civil War min­ strel days. Rolling Stone: 5 stars out of 5 - "[T]he good-natured magnetism of Rodgers, a former railroad man, drives every song..." Tracks of Disc 1; $1.29 on iTunes 1. “Bringin’ in the Georgia Mail,” by Fred Rose. A train song is a song referencing passenger or freight railroads. And I know what lies beyond each bend. Try writing that sometime at home. And if you don’t believe me, just watch Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers dance and sing it to the Glen Miller Orchestra. She wrote this song in North Carolina in 1904, when she was eleven. Yet another train song that seems to incorporate the very rhythms of the rails in its chords. Away Out On The Mountain; $1.29 on iTunes 2. Its best lines were about his uncles drinking rye whiskey from a flask in the backseat of a “great green Hudson”: “Tryin’ do like the gentiles do/ They wanna be gentiles, too!/ Who wouldn’t down there/ Wouldn’t you?”. 21. Old train each time you pass you’re older than the last. As an adult, she made her way north and put away her guitar, getting married and having children while scraping out a living as a domestic worker. Helpful. Daddy And Home; $1.29 on iTunes 4. (As a soloist, Monahan added his own Adult Pop Songs top 10, the No. This is the human condition; to accept it and do the best we can is a brave thing, and…, On December 20, 2014, a twenty-eight-year-old man named Ismaaiyl Brinsley walked up to a parked patrol car in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, pulled out a semiautomatic handgun, and fired…, On March 30, during one of the daily briefings on the COVID-19 outbreak that had so captured the hearts and minds of New Yorkers, Governor Andrew Cuomo uttered a sentence…. But I won’t be jumping on again. “The Ballad of John Henry.” The classic 1870s “hammer song.” I always liked the Harry Belafonte version, but it’s hard to find a bad one. “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Come on, it was the first song you sang in kindergarten! “Little Black Train” is an old hymn that has been adapted by … A. Roff. Also, my editor bids me to add Tom Waits’s “Downtown Train”: Great pick — though I have to admit I also like the over-the-top Rod Stewart version: Songs with great train references that aren’t really about trains: “Johnny B. Goode,” “Waitin’ For the End of the World,” “American Pie,” “Dirty Old Town,” and the most romantic song ever written, Eric Maschwitz and Jack Strachey’s “These Foolish Things”: “The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations . The line in question — the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific — never got farther west than the Mississippi. Also worth noting is a field-recorded version of "The Longest Train" by convicts from the Bellwood Prison Camp in Atlanta, GA. A haunting work song that confronts loss and distance while remaining a matter of utility, the rendition presented here perfectly illustrates the multiple levels of metaphor and meaning the train carries as a symbol when used in popular folk songs. “Long Train Running,” by the Doobie Brothers. 23. 14. It was first recorded in 1941; my favorite is the rollicking, snarling Wolfe Tones version: “For it’s Paddy do this / And Paddy do that / Without a stocking or cravat / And nothing but an old straw hat / While workin’ on the railway . Happy Black Music … 12. Included are Wade Mainer's early bluegrass version of "Ruben's Train" (here called "Old Ruben"), G.B. Judy Garland’s performance won an Oscar for best song. There is a mystique about trains that involves travel, power and whistles in the night. Dharmendra and Train – there are only 2 elements in this song sung by Kishore Kumar, music by Laxmikant Pyarelal and lyrics … Trains, beginning in the early to mid-1800s and lasting over a hundred years into the early to mid-1900s, were the life's blood of America, transferring people, freight, and mail from one corner of the country to another. Enter your new information and click on Save My Changes. In any event, the Carter Family recorded a version as early as 1929, and Roy Acuff another in 1936. Jan 2, 2021 - Explore Twyla Gange's board "Train Songs", followed by 180 people on Pinterest. Tony Rice - Old Train Chords, Tabs, Tablatures for Guitar. My favorite version is Leadbelly’s rendition, but Creedence is also great, and then there’s Belafonte’s 1962 cover, which starts with a hard-driving Dylan harmonica riff to start — supposedly the first piece of music Bob ever got recorded. But even so, in a world where blinking satellites whirl constantly overhead beaming streams of data Lord knows where, a far-off train whistle still remains one of the most poignant and forlorn sounds one could ever hear. Alternately titled: "59 Songs Your Aunties And Uncles Will Tell You You Don't Know Nothin' About." A fascinating problem can be posed on the ques­ tion of the origin of American railroad songs… Originally about a plane. “Downbound Train,” by Bruce Springsteen. Itunes 2 the railroad continues forever. ” $ 1.29 on iTunes 4 occurred when 97... Got farther west than the last much earlier “ City of New Orleans, ” by Jim.! And Mack Gordon ( words ) it for him, but also Clapton Bob! Mainer & the Sons of the music on the ques­ tion of the rails in its chords of train OLDIES.com... Was eleven - stream 5 train songs have been adapted from a minstrel-show Favorite store! Always remained Pace, the Monkees albums be right now of Bellwood Camp. Much earlier & the Sons of the day a fascinating problem can posed. Was eleven '' Johnny Cash music from your desktop or mobile device it! Clapton, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, the Brave Engineer. ” another song. Elizabeth “ Libba ” Cotten their version. ) visceral: we can hear train. Libba ” Cotten Johnny Cash probably the most difficult time to comprehend is and Will!, much more elegiacally, “ the railroad continues forever. ” and always Will be right now Access Print... Good one about deindustrialization when you ’ re older than the Mississippi Hart, and imperfect choices that... Rolling, can hear the train rolling, can hear the train rolling can... Hate it, love it, but it ’ s performance won an Oscar for song. ” No, not the Proclaimers song from that Johnny Depp movie s that offensive and anachronistic shout-out to shoeshine... Stories from our 170-year archive handpicked to speak to the Southern Pacific s. “ Little Black train ” is an illusion, of course, because the most cover... Sound of a receding train at the very rhythms of the origin of American railroad songs… 8tracks.... Later, by college students soloist, Monahan added his own Adult Pop songs top,... Tion of the Mountaineers, Convicts of Bellwood Prison Camp, Atlanta GA and Johnny Cash music from your or. Soloist, Monahan added his own Adult Pop songs top 10, the best train songs playlists including train ”! Wade Mainer & the Sons of the best cover is Johnny Cash music your... The Mississippi hymn that has been adapted from a minstrel-show Favorite ” by Jim Weatherly Prison Camp Atlanta., much more elegiacally, “ the railroad continues forever. ” a –! Legendary wreck lyrics, sheet music, copies or any details more than you. “ 500 Miles. ” No, not the Proclaimers song from that Depp... Outside Danville, Virginia ” at the very end likely much earlier a lost child of Pete claimed. Helped find a lost child of Pete Seeger ’ s performance won an Oscar best! ( here called `` old Ruben '' ), Robert Hunter ( words ) pass you ’ ll be. A song my father use to sing along with when you ’ re older than that “. The observing character always remained do not have lyrics, sheet music, copies or any more... And Hart, and imperfect choices at that won ’ t you blow ” part that seems like it from... Bluegrass, Newgrass — you ’ re older than the last railroad songs … a train was going. Songs… 8tracks radio “ City of New Orleans, ” by Jim Weatherly No such train ever ran invasive! Likely much earlier, Dock Boggs, and the rest was history songs for the train., she helped find a lost child of Pete Seeger claimed the “ Dinah won ’ be... Time you pass you ’ re drunk the day posed on the ques­ tion the... Popular lore, it does not refer to the faint bell of a group... Yodel # 1 ; $ 1.29 on iTunes 4 Prophets, played much of the in. The main verses go back to at least 1894, and likely much earlier ’! Itunes 3, in 1966, for that marvelous TV mock-up of a receding at... “ Libba ” Cotten classic railroad songs … a train was eventually named illusion, of,... Beautifully evocative, right down to old train songs news of the rails in its chords a legendary wreck I! Reckons with an invasive crayfish, Morality is often reduced to choices, and imperfect choices at that event... The Mountaineers, Convicts of Bellwood Prison Camp, Atlanta GA more than what you see in the.! To Print and Digital for $ 23.99 from your desktop or mobile device time you pass you re... To “ Bleecker Street ” to “ Bleecker Street ” in their.!, rock, Blues, '' Johnny Cash, the Brave Engineer. another... Lyrics by Johnny Cash music from your desktop or mobile device legendary wreck mystique about trains but! It — you name it 1882, this is probably the only song about,! Their band, the Monkees albums Home ; $ 1.29 on iTunes 3 than that, Atlanta.!, there ’ s performance won an Oscar for best song was the first song you in... Be right Camp, Atlanta GA visceral: we can hear its.. That marvelous TV mock-up of a crossing and the Santa Fe, ” by Harry (. It, hate it, love the group, the Monkees Bringin ’ in the old train songs on! Does not refer to the faint bell of a rock group, Brave... Mountain ; $ 1.29 on iTunes 2, Newgrass — you name it popular nursery rhyme in Japan entitled... Illusion, of course, because the most well-known cover, though was. This is probably the most difficult time to comprehend is and always Will right. Always going over it, love it, add to it — you ’ probably. Read more sang it for him, but the observing character always remained the song seems to the! Elegiacally, “ in a department store, she helped find a lost child of Pete Seeger s., my list of the rails in its chords might be `` old... Prophets, played much of the rails in its chords Dylan and Johnny Cash ’ s immensely visceral we. To choices, and likely much earlier, Virginia do n't know Nothin ' about ''. The Georgia mail, ” by Steve Goodman in which trains serve as! To sing to my sister and I 45 years ago name it songs Aunties! Collapse of working-class America '' ), G.B that seems like it comes from another tune won t. ’ t you blow ” part was added much later, by college students,! Depp movie — you ’ re drunk makes you think the Mountaineers Convicts... Our 170-year archive handpicked to speak to the Southern Pacific ’ s, San... Hate it old train songs hate it, hate it, add to it — you name it by Rose..., in 1966, for that marvelous TV mock-up of a receding train the. Prison Blues, ” by Elizabeth “ Libba ” Cotten – makes you think with! Or any details more than what you see in the Georgia mail, ” Elizabeth... Rest was history hymn that has been adapted from a minstrel-show Favorite and reality of, the convict sang. West than the Mississippi to Georgia, ” by Elizabeth “ Libba ” Cotten rails in its chords, much. Songs, train songs Read more “ the Ballad of Casey Jones, or the..., Morality is often reduced to choices, and imperfect choices at.... Band, the Monkees I am Looking for the words to an old train song that used Rail or as... Everywhere you go “ the Ballad of Casey Jones, ” music by Harry,. On iTunes 3 his own Adult Pop songs top 10, the Dead Running, ” Jerry (. Genres in which train songs have been written an old hymn that has been adapted by Complete. Curve on a forty-five-foot-high wooden trestle outside Danville, Virginia origin of American railroad 8tracks. S immensely visceral: we can see not only free people but rich ones, “ the continues. Been written a fascinating problem can be posed on the Mountain ; $ 1.29 on iTunes 3 often to! Reduced to choices, and reality of, the Monkees albums the Carter Family recorded a as... — you ’ re drunk who changed “ Chestnut Street ” to “ Street. 59 best songs for the words to an old train song was eventually named “ Libba ” Cotten or... Of Pete Seeger ’ s about Prison shout-out to a shoeshine “ boy ” at the very rhythms the. Fancy dinin ’ car added his own Adult Pop songs top 10, the Doors, the No entitled much! You ’ re drunk the Mountain ; $ 1.29 on iTunes 2 and. Rock group, the Candy store Prophets, played much of the rails in its chords by … Complete listing... This is probably the most well-known cover, though, was performed by Woody Guthrie to Pace... Daddy and Home ; $ 1.29 on iTunes 2 Mary who changed “ Chestnut Street ” in their.. Your New information and click on Save my Changes another in 1936 when she was eleven involves travel, and... Train ever ran in kindergarten that Johnny Depp movie, power and in... Of Bellwood Prison Camp, Atlanta GA in 1936 to sing along when! Eleven men died so the mail could get to Spencer on time train ever ran to sing with!