I've been entertaining professionally (singing, playing guitar and harmonica) as a sideline to my railroad career for 43 years. For a long time I was actually billed as the "singing conductor" (Jimmy Rogers was a boomer brakeman, and never stayed around long enough to get promoted: I did). I can sing a railroad song at the drop of a hat. Over the years I'd say my favorites are:
City of New Orleans
Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Wreck of the Old 97
Waiting for a Train
Life's Railway to Heaven
Wreck of Number Nine
I've written a passle of railroad songs myself, including "Big Mike Heney" (about the builder of the White Pass & Yukon Route), "Life on the Railroad", "The McKenzie Wreck", and "Freight Train Rambles". Many of these were recorded on my 1993 album "Life on the Railroad" which was actually advertised for sale in TRAINS magazine for a while back in the mid-1990s. I also played with Utah Philips long long ago at the Juneau Folk Festival in the old Armory Building. He was a real character. Moose Turd Pie...
My 5 year old granddaughter Adelle has just learned the words to "Big Mike Heney" from one of my old CDs. Her mother told me that she woke up singing the line from the song,"give me dynamite and snoose, I'll build a railroad straight to hell" the other day. Forgive me, Father, for I have passed on the wild free spirit of the railroad business as told in our songs to her!
Enjoy the songs about the trains, wherever they may be sung.
Steve Hites
Skagway, Alaska
I like Sheena Easton's "Morning Train (9 - 5)." A wonderful video was made which was filmed at a British railway museum.
Chaka Kahn's "Through the Fire" does not have any railroad content, but a very nice video was filmed in Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal.
"Take The A Train" composed by Billy Strayhorn and performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra is an unapologic celebration of mass transit and urbanism.
I nominate "Wagon Wheel" by Bob Dylan. Not clearly in one of your categories unless "southbound train" could be specific enough. Great train feel and rhythms.
Much as I love Arlo's version, I still prefer the original City of New Orleans, as written and performed by Steve Goodman.
Arlo changed the lyrics a bit. He said "They ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steel. And mothers with their babes asleep go rockin' to the gentle beat; the rhythm of the rails is all they feel."
Steve's original lyric was "They ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steam. And mothers with their babes asleep go rockin' to the gentle beat; the rhythm of the rails is all they dream."
Steel and feel don't carry the same wistful, ethereal connotation as steam and dream. Steel is hard and cold; steam is soft and warm; dream is more appealing to the senses than feel, which is vague and nonspecific. Arlo's piano also doesn't seem quite as appropriate as Steve's guitar (with fiddle on his studio release).
There seems to be a consensus that the John Denver version is the worst. He changed "old black men" to "old gray men", and made other changes that Steve, for one, hated.
Maybe it's just personal taste, or maybe I'm partial to Steve's version because I heard it first --- probably before Arlo heard it.
No matter who did it, if "City" isn't the greatest American railroad song, we can agree that it's certainly among the very best. John Denver messed it up, but even he couldn't ruin it.
Tom
(edited)
Gads, hard question! Trinity River Bottoms Boomer will just comment.
City of New Orleans version by Arlo Guthrie is by far the best! C&W singer Sunny James recorded "68 Rock Island Line", George Hamilton IV recorded Canadian Pacific which was on his LP Steel Rail Blues. For us Bible Pounders, the great gosple hymn, Life is Like a Mountain Railroad (also recorded by GHIV).
Hard to pick a favorite. Steam Locomotive Man Steele Craver (Six Flags over Texas) liked Kraftwerk's TransEurop Express and couldn't get it in the States. Lucky for him I live in Germany....what you won't do for a friend! It is a neat song though. Wonder how many other countries have railroad related songs?
A couple of topical references:
"200 miles an hour on that Washington DC run...
And at one time the presence of oil trains was downright nostalgic...
Rock island Line by Johnny Cash on Sun Records
My Lord, I don't know how I could have forgotten this song (and it really isn't a 'railroad' song per se), but I was over in the Passenger thread reading about the sleeperless westbound trains, and it reminded me...
As with 'Panama Limited', hard to hear this and not be moved.
It's not really a "train" song as such, but Gene Autry has a song called "The Ballad of Jimmy Rogers."
For Train song:it has to be City of New Orleans-Arlo Guthrie version. Dad loved it and he died a year later, so that song has many memories for me.
Railroad song-can't think of any that are favorites-but do like Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. Some of these mentioned I have never heard.
Baggage Car Ahead-had never heard it but Mom said that was a reminder of her father's casket in Frisco baggage car. Her mom had to present his pass when they loaded the casket. He was buried in St. James, MO on the Frisco main and there was one car filled with friends and family that all worked for Frisco-no revenue for that car.
Maybe I missed it, but no one mentioned Woody Guthrie's " This Train is Bound for Glory." Another one I like is "Dixie Cannonball" as done by Gene Autry, and "Mystery Pacific" done by Django Reinhardt. Asleep at the Wheel did a dynamite version of "Choo Choo Ch'boogie" in the 70s. Hell, anything by Johnny Cash and if it doesn't mention trains, so what?
User carnej1 proposes starting a list of railroad-related 'prog rock' songs, with the initial example of Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europ Express'
Here's the original studio version ('Trans Europa Express') which you may not have heard:
Maybe that's not purely 'progressive', as carnej1 indicated, but it's good enough to be here.
"Why Do They All Take The Night Boat To Albany and Grab The Next Train To New York?"
"Hey Engineer"
My favorites are any & all of them, sad to glad. Any song about trains and rails helps keep alive a part of our history.
Mel McDaniel -Let It Roll
http://youtu.be/vUxlKIOVXqc
I may have missed it, but I do not recall that anyone has mentioned "Gonna take a sentimental journey."
Johnny
CNSFWhat? No one's nominated Liz Phair's 'Baby Got Going' yet? Can't believe it.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
peter paul and mary, Freight Train, This Train (don't carry no gamblers) 1965?
Speaking of Not Rock or Country, here's "Ain't No Brakeman" performed by the great bluesman John Mayall:
Lyrics by Fontaine Brown: http://www.lyrics.net/lyric/9916497
UPDATE: posted too soon, here's the same song covered by Coco Montoya with superior railroad related video:
UPDATE TWO: don't know if this has been posted already, but Wikipedia wants your input: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_train_songs
Could be a very long topic, this ....
Links to my Google Maps ---> Sunset Route overview, SoCal metro, Yuma sub, Gila sub, SR east of Tucson, BNSF Northern Transcon and Southern Transcon *** Why you should support Ukraine! ***
"I Thought About You" (Music by Jimmy Van Heusen, Lyrics by Johnny Mercer") (listed by ramrod)
I took a trip on a trainAnd I thought about youI passed a shadowy laneAnd I thought about youTwo or three cars parked under the starsA winding streamMoon shining down on some little townAnd with each beam, same old dreamAnd every stop that we made, oh, I thought about you
and when I pulled down the shade then I really felt blue
I peeked through the crack and looked at the trackThe one going back to youAnd what did I do? I thought about you.
I'm speechless, Chuck.
Ramrod,
My admiration has no limits now. An inventory of favored tunes and lyrics, railroad oriented, vast and varied, Ya' got it.
A couple that I'd throw into the mix:
The Stanley Brother's Orange Blossom Special,
Hank Snow's The Wreck of the Old 97.
Roy Acuff's Wabash Cannonball
Hobo Bill's Last Ride, Hank Snow
and The Sons of the Pioneers' "Way Out There" and "One Last Ride."
Ernest Tubbs sang about a hobo in Texas trying to get home, "if you haven't got a nickle" said the brakeman...
The "Singing Brakeman," everything he sang evoked his era...Jimmie Rogers....the '20s to the '30s.
There are song writers and songs, so many....let's honor them...
brakeman
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