Buddy Get On Down The Line as recorded by the Kingston Trio.
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
Anyone else remember: I've Been Working on the Railroad very popular with kids when I was young:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkQQbRqLoCI
Rembering it prompted me to look up background info on the song:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ve_Been_Working_on_the_Railroad
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
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
The original version of The Wreck of Old 97 included the lines "This is not 38; but it's Old 97; You must get her into Spencer on time." However, it appears that early recording artists learned the song by ear, and not from written lyrics. They seem to have misheard the lyric as "into Center on time", and repeated the incorrect version on early recordings. A similar problem crops up with "It's a mighty rough road from Lynchburg to Danville and a line on a three mile grade." I've heard Lynchburg's revered old name butchered into "Lanksbury" and several other ungraceful things. Maybe the worst of all is "...when he lost his air brakes; see what a jump he made." More than one singer would have us believe "he lost his average." Who knows what that is supposed to mean?
ROBERT WILLISON Put me down for " you can hear the whistle blowing 500 miles by peter, Paul and Mary
Put me down for " you can hear the whistle blowing 500 miles by peter, Paul and Mary
Good song, Robert Willison! No arugments from me with this one as I have always enjoyed Peter, Paul and Mary! Here's one on my personal favorites... Dusty Boxcar Wall. It kind of haunts me everytime I hear it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Gz-SaIDak
You'd have to be a railfan to know that Spencer NC was a division point on the old Southern Railway. Nowadays it's the home to the North Carolina Transportation Museum.
Then again, us railfans know everything, don't we?
As to the "Wreck of the Old 97," There is a division point named which means absolutely nothing to many people nowadays. I have heard, "You must get her into Atlanta on time" sung by someone who had no idea that Spencer, North Carolina (just above Salisbury) was as far as that engineer could run.
Johnny
Anyway...I've always liked "I'm Movin' On" written and recorded by Hank Snow, but if I had to pick one it would be former L&N call boy Roy Acuff and "The Wabash Cannonball". Here's two versions 50 years apart (note that Pete "Bashful Brother Oswald" Kirby is playing dobro in both clips!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-gwQkJOphI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1i9DXaEYWI
Interestingly, Roy Acuff and his band, the Crazy Tennesseans, couldn't get on the Grand Ol' Opry at first. Judge Hay (who introduces him in the 1940 clip) thought they were "too modern" for the show. When Judge Hay was out with an extended illness, he was replaced by announcer David Stone, and it was Stone who first introduced Acuff on the show. Later Stone moved to the Twin Cities and hosted a local country music show called "The Sunset Valley Barn Dance", and later an early morning tv show with farm news and music videos (that he and his staff created) that I watched in the sixties.
The story of "The Wreck of the Old 97" has some interesting twists and turns. The book "Scalded to Death by the Steam" by Katie Letcher Kyle goes into some detail on it. For example, a lot of people think the engine was no. 97, but it was train no. 97, a fast mail train. (The engine was 1102, a 4-6-0.) "Old" was a term of familiarity, like "good old Charlie Brown", the train had only been running a few years at the time the wreck happened.
The melody was borrowed from the 1860's shipwreck song "The Ship That Never Return'd", which had been borrowed or parodied many times in the intervening years. Melodies often migrated from song to song back then - "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane", referencing slave shacks in the Old South, then "My Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim" about an Old West homesteader, to "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train".
No one really knows who wrote the lyrics - remember, publishing a song doesn't mean you wrote it!! Many performers picked up folk songs 'up in the hills' and recorded / published them as their own. One version is that a local man wrote the lyrics, perhaps as a poem more than a song. (The wreck happened on a Sunday afternoon, and many people saw it happen. Rescuers were on the scene quickly, and several photographs of the wreck taken soon after were published nationally.)
Henry Whittier from rural Virginia was the first person to record it after singing it regularly in his act for years. Some believe he inspired others to sing and record it, because his version was so bad that almost anyone could have done better. In any case, the song wasn't recorded until 20 years after the wreck, and most likely it is the work of several people, and could include lines from other songs woven into it.
Vernon Dahlhart's version was the one that made the song famous, partly because it was on the flip side of "The Prisoner's Song" which was a huge hit. ("If I had the wings of angel, over these prison walls I would fly.") Although he was from Texas, Dahlhart apparently "put on" a fake Southern accent in the recording, he doesn't sing in a noticeable accent in other recordings from the time. He does actually say "lost his average" not "lost his air brakes". Apparently "average" has to do with air brake pressure; by over-using the air brakes Broady lost air pressure and couldn't slow down when he really needed to.
The "black greasy fireman" wasn't African American, he was white but covered in coal dust and lubricating oil. Firemen were generically called "blacks", like engineers were "hoggers" and conductors "shacks". (If you are familiar with the 1970's movie "Emperor of the North", note that none of the characters have real names, they're only referred by their job nicknames or hobo 'monikers'.)
Vernon Dahlharts record was catalogued by Victor Records at the time under "Foreign Language", with the language noted as "Southern".
A fun thread here,
Merle Haggard's "The Silver Ghost" was mentioned before and that song has stuck in my head since I was listening to it on vinyl in the 1970s. All the songs on his album "My Love Affair With Trains" are good ones.
Some additions I'd suggest:
Texas Eagle by Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band
Boxcars by Joe Ely
Georgia on a Fast Train by Billy Joe Shaver
Kansas City Southern by Turnpike Troubadours
No Train to Memphis by BR5-49
Off to go purchase some MP3s.
Stephen
Great thread. Here are a couple great ones that got missed, or at least I didn't see.
R.E.M. - Driver 8
Calexico - Minas de Cobre (For Better Metal)
The Pogues - Poor Paddy On The Railroad (cover)
23 best railroad songs from Harpers magazine http://harpers.org/blog/2014/06/the-twenty-three-best-train-songs-ever-written-maybe/
That's the one brother! And thanks for the advice!
PS: No, I (we) don't have cats. We have Basset Hounds, the closest you can come to having a cat and still have a dog!
Firelock76 I still can't figure out how to make a link to You Tube work. Computers aren't smart, they aren't dumb, they're just MEAN.
You must have ticked off your computer somehow. I suspect you do not have cats.
How about this?
1) Go to the YouTube video in question. Select the URL that appears in your browser as the clip is playing.
2) Reply to a post. Go to the place within the text of the post where you want the video to appear. In the toolbar above the window you're entering text in, click on the little picture of a video (it's directly under the 'strikethrough' button to the right of B-I-U for formatting). Then paste the video URL into the box that comes up selected.
When you click OK, the video is automatically linked into a window.
You can also use the 'link' tool (the little picture of a chain - how cute!) to insert the video URL so that it's clickable ('highlighted in blue') but this isn't as direct as having the video appear right there in the post.
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Johnny McCollums' "Santa Fe All The Way," one of the best rail songs of the modern era.
You can find it easily on You Tube. I still can't figure out how to make a link to You Tube work. Computers aren't smart, they aren't dumb, they're just MEAN.
Wanswheel's last post was most appropriate. B.B. King passed away yesterday at the age of 89.
Today is the birthday of Buce (Utah) Phillips, born in 1935; left us in 2008. He wrote "Starlight on the Rails", "Old Buddy, Good Night", and many other songs and poems about railroads and the hobo life.
Someone else may have mentioned it but Hobos Lullaby, Emmylou Harris and/or Woody Guthrie for me.
My favorite is Merle Haggard's "Miner's Silver Ghost".
Blue Water Line-The Brothers Four
Down by the Station-The Four Preps
I've heard several songs
Johnny Cash: Hey Porter, Wabash cannonball, Wreck of Old 97
Kenny Rogers: Gambler
Steve Goodman and Willie Nelson: City of new Orleans
Alabama: Ride The Train
Alan Jackson: Freight Train
Various bluegrass songs: John Henry, Glendale Train, Orange Blossom Special, Freight Train, Life's Railway to Heaven
A lot of good songs. I can even play some of them on guitar.
Monkey and the Engineer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdfiXBlwTsQ
Steve
Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight and the Pips
Train, Train by Blackfoot
Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne, and I'm hopping on it now for including it.
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