Best Railroad Songs

[alphas]

I was always partial to Stonewall Jackson's "Smoke Along the Tracks" which was a big and long lasting hit on the local radio back when I was a teenager in 59-60.    The Emmy Lou Harris cover of it was also good.

[54light15]

And then there's Axel Zwingenberger, one of the best Boogie-Woogie pianists ever. He put out a book of photos of the last mainline steam to run in Eastern Germany (including narrow-gauge) and some of the photos were in Trains magazine years ago. I have the book, "Vom Zauber der Zuge" and it came with a CD of his music as well as sheet music. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NecIOby9uXo

[54light15]

Fifty years ago my father restored an airplane, an Aeronca 7AC in our backyard. He had a record of Oscar Brand's called "Songs For The Madcap Airman." Humourous stuff as I recall.

[wanswheel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/arts/music/oscar-brand-folk-singer-whose-radio-show-twanged-for-decades-dies-at-96.html

[MikeF90]

R.I.P. Mr. Loudermilk.

As long as we're firing up this thread again ....

"Old Charlie stole the handle and
The train it won't stop going
No way to slow down."

[wanswheel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/arts/music/john-loudermilk-dead.html?_r=0

[M636C]

tree68

 

 

Paul of Covington

   Do you realize how hard it is to say, "The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"?   Not sing it, say it....

 

 

 

Darned near impossible...

 

 

There is some comment in the director's discussion on the "Harvey Girls" DVD about the music for the big production number, how it was supposed to evoke the sound of a train but with syncopation that matched the railroad name.

These guys were real professionals, and the song didn't get an Oscar by accident.

M636C

[tree68]

Paul of Covington

   Do you realize how hard it is to say, "The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"?   Not sing it, say it....

Darned near impossible...

[Ulrich]

Midnight Special by CCR. 

[Paul of Covington]

   Do you realize how hard it is to say, "The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"?   Not sing it, say it.

[M636C]

I'm not a big fan of DVDs, butout here in Australia, the Post Office is trying to turn its shopfronts into stores with other products in order to remain open in the face of falling letter traffic (but expanding parcels business). 

They sell a lot of stationery items, digital media and so on.

Anyway to return to relevance, they recently offered movie DVDs at $5 each, including several old Musicals, including "The Harvey Girls".

At that price I had to have one. As well as the full movie, there is a version of the full "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" with real stereo sound. The original production used multiple microphones which were separately recorded and have been combined in post production into good quality stereo.

There is also an interview with Director George Sidney where he speaks over the movie action as vision. Two points were that he described bringing the train down to Hollywood from Truckee by road in 1945 using war surplus aircraft transporters, and the various difficulties they faced. He also spoke about the final scene in the big production number where the cast were in the path of the locomotive cylinder drain cocks as it started. I'd noticed this but the director was fully aware of it at the time, and praised the cast.

The song won the Academy Award in 1946.

I was born in 1948, and I remember in the early 1950s that my Father would sing the chorus on occasions, but at the time I had no idea what it was all about.

M636C

[Euclid]

Here is Milwaukee Blues, an old song by Charlie Poole sung here by Dom Flemons, formerly with the Carolina Chocolate Drops:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf43lUsqnHw

[overall]

There is a bluegrass song called Eastbound Freight Train. A live band used to sing it on the Sewanee Steam Special years ago. This train was pulled by none other than NS 611. It was also pulled at times by 1218.

[Overmod]

Inspired  by the rhythm of train wheels:

And, for tree68, here is something extraordinary from the close of a Mass celebrating the Paris firefighters:  Listen, and be moved.

 

[ATSFGuy]

I have a couple favorites.

1. Mystery Train - Elvis Presley

2. Cmon N Ride It - Quad City DJs

3. Little Red Caboose - Buckwheat Zydeco

4. The Train is Coming - Ken Boothe

5. Runaway Train - Soul Asylum

6. Life is Like a Mountain Railroad - Boxcar Willie

7. Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight

8. Midnight Special - Johnny Rivers 

9. Wreck of the Ole 97 - ????

10. Choo Choo Bugaloo - Buckwheat Zydeco

 

[wanswheel]

[Euclid]

https://vimeo.com/3624087

[Euclid]

wanswheel

 

Euclid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbaz_T6BN3g

 

 

 

I forgot Emmylou was ever young.

 

A couple years ago, they took a lot of her high quality early videos off of Youtube.  I really like her early era circa 1977.  This is an example, although not live and not a train song: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3LQeRqTBK4

 

[Buslist]

Not exactly a song.

Moose turd pie.

 

https://youtu.be/0zb1qsVqjwg

[wanswheel]

Johnny Cash and the Stanley Brothers in 1964.  It seems Led Zep infringed their song title.

[wanswheel]

Euclid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbaz_T6BN3g

I forgot Emmylou was ever young.

[Paul of Covington]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2XwZTc7QHw

[Euclid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbaz_T6BN3g

[wanswheel]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/06/23/ralph-stanley-bluegrass-legend-dead-89/86038242/

[wanswheel]

 

[wanswheel]

Good old Merle is gone.

[Firelock76]

ACY

Wanswheel:

That's an interesting variation of "97". I don't think I've ever heard the engineer called Pete before. His actual name was Joseph A. Broady, but he went by the nickname Steve, for reasons evidently lost to history.

Tom

 

Steve Brodie was the first man to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge (as a stunt) and survive, it happened in 1886.  After that any man with the last name of Brodie, or a variation thereof, usually wound up with the nickname "Steve."

That lasted for years, along with the saying you don't hear anymore "Take a Brodie," usually meaning a bad fall or a slip.

[Bruce Kelly]

Joe, funny you should conclude your list with  "Last Train Home." I don't know whether you had Pat Metheny's version from 1987 in mind, but it's VERY much on my mind lately, what with Winterail's first gig in Corvallis, Oregon, now just under two months away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq5oqY3-vhg

My memory on this is a bit fuzzy, but I believe it was Ted Benson who first turned Railfan & Railroad editor Jim Boyd onto this song. Or perhaps Boyd simply caught it on the radio or MTV/VH1. Anyway, it soon became a prominent piece of background music for one of Boyd's more memorable multimedia slide shows.

Back then, after repeated viewings of that show at more venues than I could keep track of, the song began to wear a little thin on me, conjuring up images of ridiculously long road trips, long nights spent in the R&R offices during deadline week (because some folks were terrible procrastinators), late and tiresome nights at some rail group's chapter meeting, and so on.

But now, almost 30 years later, Metheny's "Last Train Home" is a real gem to my ears, and my heart. Not just because it's a musical masterpiece that I can finally appreciate in my older age, but because it brings back memories that I now cherish, whether it was those railfanning trips with Boyd and fellow R&R associate editor Mike Del Vecchio, or the visits to places from the East Coast to California where that Boyd slide show got shown, and I in turn got to meet up with countless folks whose photography and friendship still inspires me to this day.

P.S. In a nod to Winterail organizer and fellow prog rock follower Vic Neves, I submit the following piece by former Genesis guitarist and outspoken railway fan (especially when it involves steam) Steve Hackett. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddF62zLejy0

PPS: As a musical heads-up to any Trains/Kalmbach staffers who will be attending Winterail this March, just know that the pronunciation of "Oregon" in that one Steely Dan song is quite wrong. (I was told long ago that Keefe is a fan.)

 

 

[JOSEPH RENNER]

there is cd I have called Lonesome Whistle. It is bluegrass train songs. They are as follows: 

wabash cannonball

john henry

city of new orleans

orange blossom special

train 45

wreck of the old 97

reuben's train

life's railway to heaven

glendale train

freight train

fireball mail 

kansas city railroad blues

nine pound hammer

last train home

 

also like Alabama's song "Ride the Train"

[BaltACD]

wanswheel

In Henry Whitter’s version, which Vernon Dalhart said he misunderstood, “air brakes” sounds to me like “ab bricks,” and probably close enough to “average” to Dalhart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b8fUJT_ZNA

https://casetext.com/case/victor-talking-machine-co-v-george