What's Your Favorite Train Song?

[traingang]

I'm casting my #1 vote for "City of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie, because of its better combination of music and interesting lyrics. It is always the first song I think of when I think of a classic train song, likely because I was a radiohead in the 1970s. "The Last Train To Clarksville" by The Monkees did not even enter my thoughts until I saw it here, but I have to admit it is a personal favorite more because of the music than the words. Gladys singing "Midnight Train To Georgia" is outstanding vocally.

[zwbob]

once upon a time there was an engineer
choo choo charley was his name we hear
he had an engine and he sure had fun
eating good and plenty candy to make his train run[:D]

[TurboOne]

I still have a picture album with Casey Jones on 1 side, John Henry on the other. Those two are my fav.

Tim

[Anonymous]

Since nobody else mentioned it, Boogey Woogey Choo-Choo Train by "The Tractors".

[Frank53]

one not mentioned - Hellbound Train

I always though of Midnight Special as a train song

[chemung]

Gary7 and FJ and G,got to hand it to both,you guys got class.I remember Big Band as I am 66.Wish it would come back in a big way.

[Anonymous]

Chattanooga Choo Choo and Wabash Cannonball

[FJ and G]

Geepers golly,

Now that I look at my signature, it sure seems sort of long.

Good thing there ain't five or six more stanzas!

[FJ and G]

Chemung,

I'll be 48 on Apr. 2nd (hint), but like Gary7, I listen to big band/swing and jazz most of the time I'm in the basement.

GarySeven,

I'm changing my signature to include that song, it's so cool.

[garyseven]

chemung

Sorry but I am only 42. My parents, however, cultivated in me a love for most all music - especially big band/swing.

[siberianmo]

Hope I'm not breaking the "rules," but I have another .......

The great Canadian singer songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot, has one helluva song in his "Canadian Railroad Trilogy."

Check the lyrics out on the building of the RR in Canada:

==============================================
There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

But time has no beginnings and hist'ry has no bounds
As to this verdant country they came from all around
They sailed upon her waterways and they walked the forests tall
Built the mines the mills and the factories for the good of us all

And when the young man's fancy was turnin' in the spring
The railroad men grew restless for to hear the hammers ring
Their minds were overflowing with the visions of their day
And many a fortune won and lost and many a debt to pay

For they looked in the future and what did they see
They saw an iron road runnin' from sea to the sea
Bringin' the goods to a young growin' land
All up through the seaports and into their hands

Look away said they across this mighty land
From the eastern shore to the western strand
Bring in the workers and bring up the rails
We gotta lay down the tracks and tear up the trails
Open 'er heart let the life blood flow
Gotta get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow

Bring in the workers and bring up the rails
We're gonna lay down the tracks and tear up the trails
Open 'er heart let the life blood flow
Gotta get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow
Get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow

Behind the blue Rockies the sun is declinin'
The stars, they come stealin' at the close of the day
Across the wide prairie our loved ones lie sleeping
Beyond the dark oceans in a place far away

We are the navvies who work upon the railway
Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun
Livin' on stew and drinkin' bad whiskey
Bendin' our old backs 'til the long days are done

We are the navvies who work upon the railway
Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun
Layin' down track and buildin' the bridges
Bendin' our old backs 'til the railroad is done

So over the mountains and over the plains
Into the muskeg and into the rain
Up the St. Lawrence all the way to Gaspe
Swingin' our hammers and drawin' our pay
Drivin' 'em in and tyin' 'em down
Away to the bunkhouse and into the town
A dollar a day and a place for my head
A drink to the livin' and a toast to the dead

Oh the song of the future has been sung
All the battles have been won
O'er the mountain tops we stand
All the world at our command
We have opened up the soil
With our teardrops and our toil

For there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
And many are the dead men too silent to be real
============================================

This is and has been one of my all time favorites too.

Hope you enjoyed it!

[Heartman]

#1 Train, Train by Blackfoot.
#2 Mystery Train by Elvis
#3 Crazy Train by Ozzy
#4 All the rest of the train songs
Dennis

[Anonymous]

Hello All: Has to be the Old 97 by the late Man in Black. Has anybody ever heard Bob Dylan's Album "Slow Train Coming", He recorded it about twenty years ago when he was in his born again days. Steve

[chemung]

garyseven,FJ and G,I'm with you on "Blues in the night" or any Mercer song.Are we giving our age away?

[FJ and G]

Gary7,

A great song, that one! Too bad they don't make that quality music these days.

[garyseven]

BLUES IN THE NIGHT
- words by Johnny Mercer, music by Harold Arlen

"My mama done tol' me
When I was in kneepants
My mama done tol' me, Son!
A woman'll sweet talk
And give ya the big eye
But when the sweet talkin's done
A woman's a two-face
A worrisome thing who'll leave ya t' sing the blues in the night

Now the rain's a-fallin'
Hear the train a-callin'
Whoo-ee (My mama done tol' me)
Hear that lonesome whistle
Blowin' 'cross the trestle
Whoo-ee (My mama done tol' me)
A whoo-ee-duh whoo-ee
Ol' clickety clack's a-echoin' back the blues in the night (Hum)
My mama was right, there's blues in the night."

[Anonymous]

Mine has to be Orange Blossom special , Wabash Cannonball or Night Train.

[Anonymous]

"Come all ya' rounders if ya' wanna hear, a story about a great engineer....Oh, Casey Jones was the rounder's name......" etc............ On a big ten wheeler that he rode to fame!

Chris

[Anonymous]

"Come all ya' rounders if ya' wanna hear, a story about a great engineer....Oh, Casey Jones was the rounder's name......" etc. I think Berl Ives did the "Ballad of Casey Jones" back in the '50's. Great stuff, but "City of New Orleans" by Guthrie has that sad and haunting sound. Any train song by Johnny Cash is magic, too.

[eZAK]

Train - Blackfoot

Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull

Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne

[laz 57]

Cant you see by The Marshall Tucker Band
laz57

[Anonymous]

"City of New Orleans" and "A Man and a Train" (theme song from "Emperor of the North" movie).

[Anonymous]

AEROSMITH train kept a rolling

[Anonymous]

ozzy - crazytrain
the freighttrain song that goes- freighttrain freighttrain going so fast
Wabash Cannonball
metallica song that goes- the light at the end of the tunnel is just a freighttrain commin your way-A-AA- A

[laz 57]

I did this thread a few months back but if you have to know its
LYNYRD SKYNYRDs TUESDAYS GONE
BLACKFOOTs TRAIN
and OZZYS CRAZY TRAIN
laz57

[FJ and G]

Anyone here listen to NPR radio's country music show on Sunday. I did all day today while track laying and they had a mess of old old old train songs bet no one today ever heard of.

[Anonymous]

Tom Lehrer, a mathematics professor at Harvard, sang a song back in the fifties that I have trouble getting out of my head. I don't remember the title, but the first couple of lines were: "Passengers will please refrain, from using toilet while the train, is in the station--Darling I love you. We encourage constipation while the train is in the station--moonlight always makes me think of you. As we wander through the park; goosing statues in the dark, if Custer's horse can take it, why can't you?" Fortunately, that's all I remember, and without the title, I can't find it on Napster.[:D][B)]

[siberianmo]

City of New Orelans by Willie Nelson. Just love his rendition of that Arlo Guthrie song. "15 cars and 15 restless riders," never did sound quite right - should've been more than 15 riding that train! I think my favorite line is, "The sons of Pullman Porters and the sons of Engineers ......." Yeah!

Anyway, I play that song over and over during my operating sessions and never get tired of hearing it.

Thanx for the question!

[andregg1]

for me is "the midnigth train to georgia"
He is leaving on the midnigth train to georgia.........