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Railroad songs, any favorites?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by sojourner: [QB] Tanner, we have had this strand before too. In fact, I started it once! But I don't mind having it again, I'm a music person. "Where they hung the jerk who invented work" is from "Big Rock Candy Mountain." I don't think of that one as a train song, though it IS about hoboes. Actually, it's more of a food and drink song!!! And I do think of many other hobo songs--e.g., "Hobo's Lullaby," certainly (a Woody Guthrie song, sung by his son Arlo, among others), and "King of the Road" (Roger Miller) to an extent--as train songs. And Louis Armstrong's "Hobo, You Can't Ride This Train," esp the intro ("Pittsboig, Vicksboig, all the boigs". . . something like that) For me too, "City of New Orleans" is probably my favorite train song of all time. It captures the sorrow and nostalgia I feel about what our modern commercial society has done to trains and to so much else of beauty in America. And it has some lovely images--Mothers with their babes asleep rocking to the rhythm of the rails, the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers. Coast Starlight, yes, I know the "Texas Eagle" by Steve Earle playing with the Del McCoury bluegrass band on his album The Mountain. It's a great song, another of my very favorite train songs. "Texas Eagle" even mentions Amtrak, not favorably, but in a humorous "rhyme": Nowadays they don't make no trains Just them piggyback freighters and them Amtrak "thaings" . . . Mr Toy, "Rock Island Line" is an old Leadbelly (Huddy Ledbetter) song. I love his version; I also really like the version by the Weavers, which is more tuneful, though they do add some silly lines (it's a live performance). For Johnny Cash train songs, my favorite is "Folsam Prison Blues," which I find myself humming whenever I'm waiting for a train that's a-coming (including when I am in NYC or DC and waiting for a subway/Metro). The anticipation in that song (so well done in the excellent film Walk the Line) captures the approaching train more than almost any other. I will have to check out those instrumentals you mention, Mr Toy; don't know them. But for train instrumentals, two favorites are "Orange Blossom Special" as performed by Vassar Clements playing fiddle with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their triple album (double CD) Will the Circle Be Unbroken (the first one), and definitely Duke Ellington Band doing "Take the A Train," Tanner. I don't care if it's about a subway, it's a great train song to me, I always think about it on the train. Some other favorite train songs of mine: "Midnight Special": another Leadbelly song, but I like the version by Creedence Clearwater Revival; I also like their song "Cross-Tie Walker" "The Wreck of the '97": This is a great song, written late 19C I think. I like the version done by Patrick Sky, which has all the lyrics, but some bluegrass versions are quite good too. "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight and the Pips "Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe"--hard to find a good version, though "Chattanooga Choo-Choo"--Glenn Miller version (with vocal) is a good one for this. "Long Train Comin" by the Doobie Brothers "John Henry" "Wabash Cannonball" "Mystery Train"--this is a great song; I don't have the definitive 50s version by I do have a good one by José Feliciano "Glendale Train"--I like the version by New Riders of the Purple Sage "I'm a Train" by Albert Hammond "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"--this is a Bob Dylan song, but I like the version done on the Super Session album by Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Steve Stills "Marrakesh Express" by Crosby, Stills & Nash (wrong continent, but I like it) "Last Train to Clarksville" by the Monkees "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie"--Louis Jordan or Manhattan Transfer version both very good "Southbound Train" by Nanci Griffith "There a Train" by the Holmes Brothers "To Morrow" by the Kingston Trio; also their song "Buddy Better Get on Down the Line" and, speaking of subways, "M.T.A" by the Kingston Trio, which is to the tune of aforementioned "The Wreck of the '97" also the theme from Petticoat Junction "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" (I think from 42nd Street) "Jenny Dreamed of Trains"--I like the version by Sweethearts of the Rodeo "Love Train" by the O'Jays "Sentimental Journey" "Night Train to Memphis" "Freight Train" bu Charles McDevitt & Nancy Whisky, many other versions too "People Get Ready"--my favorite version is the Chambers Brothers "This Train" by Peter, Paul & Mary; also they do a pretty good version of "500 Miles" "No Expectations" by the Rolling Stones (well, it's about a train station) "Homeward Bound" by Simon & Garfunkel [/QB][/QUOTE]
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