I suspect the poem was a by-product of the burgeoning temperence movement of the late 19th Century. It starts when the cowboy's put away so much liquor he passes out, and the engine's boiler is filled with lager beer instead of water. Again, the author's unknown but who knows, it might have been Carrie Nation.
I have heard the poem on my XM radio, but didn't know it was that old. The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems.
Tim
Rikers Yard Love the song too! But I have noticed that trains used to go to Heaven and somewhere along the line they started going the "other way". Don't know what changed. Tim
Love the song too! But I have noticed that trains used to go to Heaven and somewhere along the line they started going the "other way". Don't know what changed.
Well, nothing's changed, not really. There's an old poem from the 19th Century called "The Hell-Bound Train" about a cowboy's drunken nightmare of being chained with other lost souls on a train headed for Hell. The author's unknown, but you can find it easily with an on-line search. It's still pretty chilling even after 100 years.
Love the song, love the video, and mmm-mmm that boy can sing! But I'm a bit mad at ol' Josh for putting a steam engine on the head of the "Long Black Train." Steam engines aren't evil, DIESELS are evil!
Kind of a depressing song. But I guess that wasn't my original point. Looks to me like most of the footage was shot at the Tennessee Valley Railroad.
watch?feature=playerdetailpage&v=PyRZTAmcW7c
I just thought it was nice that the 610 was included in a music video like this.
Acela
The timbers beneath the rails are not the only ties that bind on the railroad. --Robert S. McGonigal
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