What's your favorite train song?

[Rotorranch]

Blackfoot's "Train, Train".

Grateful Dead's "Casey Jones".

Ozark Mountain Daredevils' "Chicken Train".

Gladys Knight & the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia".

Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train".

Taj Mahal & Blues Brothers "She Caught the Katy".

Doobie Brothers' "Long Train Runnin".

Aerosmith's "Train Kept A Rollin"

Any Blues train song.

[xdford]

Hi All

What about Gordon Lightfoots "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" and "Steel Rail Blues"? The Trilogy song is a fantastic history song, while City of New Orleans" did make airplay here in Australia circa 1973. Lightfoots songs did not do so here at least. The other that springs to mind is "Midnight Flyer" by the Eagles... hey am I showing my age or not?

BTW My website has been updated  www.xdford.digitalzones.com

Regards from Down Under

 

Trevor 

 

 

[sallesublime]

GREAT thread!

I'd have to vote for:

Jerry, Go and Ile That Car - Harry McClintock

(Anyone out there know what "Ile" means?  That's how it's spelled on the CD.  Judging from the context of the song, and fake Irish accent, I'd almost say it's "oil")

Train Whistle Nightmare - Joe "Cannonball" Lewis

(Laughed my backside off!)

I Like Trains - Fred Eaglesmith and the Flying Squirrels

(15 miles from Arkadelphia, right near the Texas border,

traffic was stopped at a railway crossing, I took it to the shoulder.

I stoked the kettle, I put it to the metal, I shook the gravel loose.

I missed the train, but I was happy with a glimps of the caboose, cause I like trains...)

And by far, the best, So Many Roads - Otis Rush

Incidentally, the first 2 songs are from a CD called Train 45 that I got on amazon a couple months ago.  Lots of great train songs!

Nathan

[tatans]

The absolute train song, of course, "Petticoat Junction"

[twhite]

Here is a lengthy list of railroad songs:  

http://www.spikesys.com/Trains/songs.html

 My personal favorite ? Duke Ellington's band doing "Take the A train".  

 Grin,
 Stein

 

 

 

Stein:

My favorite:  Duke Ellington's band doing ANYTHING!!!  But "Take The A Train" is an absolute classic!

Tom

[markpierce]

The next time I hear it I'll remember the title.

Mark

[GTX765]

Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash

Night Train - Guns and Roses

Bring it on home - Led Zepplin

Train of Consequences - Megadeth

 

[fireman216]

Duke Ellington rocks!!....don't forget Josh Turner and "Long Black Train"....

[Steve_F]

Southern Pacific

 

by Neil Young

 

Southern Pacific
Down the mountainside
To the coastline
Past the angry tide
The mighty diesel whines

And the tunnel comes
And the tunnel goes
Around another bend
The giant drivers roll

I rode the highball
I fired the Daylight
When I turned around 65
I couldn't see right

It was "Mr. Jones,
We've got to let you go
It's company policy
You've got pension though."

Roll on Southern Pacific
Roll on
On your silver rails
Roll on Southern Pacific
On your silver rails
Through the moonlight

I put in my time
I put in my time
Now I'm left to roll
Down the long decline

I ain't no brake man
Ain't no conductor
But I would be though
If I was younger

Roll on Southern Pacific
On your silver rails
On your silver rails
Roll on Southern Pacific
Roll on
On your silver rails

[Rotorranch]

Jerry, Go and Ile That Car - Harry McClintock

(Anyone out there know what "Ile" means?  That's how it's spelled on the CD.  Judging from the context of the song, and fake Irish accent, I'd almost say it's "oil")

The only thing in english I could find is a Danish word.

 Danish

 Verb

ile

1. hurry

Rotor

[dinwitty]

I recall as a kid listening to this 45 rpm "The Erie Lackawanna"

goes sorta...

Whadya do-a John

I pusha I pusha and I pusha

Where d-ya worka John?

On the Erie Lackawanawanawanawana, Erie Lackawan

 Just searched on it and it was also named "The Delaware Lackawanna" apparently a track gang song. Love to refind that exact record or song somewhere.

 

Other tune stuff

 

On the classical side,

Pacific 231, an orchestrated piece, but you should hear Isao Tomita's version, all electronic music.

A group called Von Ryans Express (which is NOT on that big list) has 2 tunes train related, practically the same song, one has lyrics, the other all musicated, and very cool.

 

[Great Western Rwy fan]

It has to be City Of New Orleans sung by Willie Nelson, Followed by Johnny Cash's Folsom prision blues.

[CrossTrack Trains]

"The Monkey & the Engineer" Artist: The Grateful Dead, Album: Reckoning

 

Did anyone mention City of New Orleans? just kidding :)

 

 

[jecorbett]

1. City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie

2. City of New Orleans by Johnny Cash

3. City of New Orleans by Willie Nelson

4. City of New Orleans by anybody else

[jecorbett]

Haven't seen any votes for 500 miles by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary. It at least deserves honorable mention. The Kingston Trio hijacked the song and made a hit single out of it. Supposedly Peter Yarrow never forgave Bob Shane for that.  

[hobo9941]

City of New Orleans gets my vote. Back in the 60s, I was in the Air Force, and stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi. I often ran down to New Orleans on the weekends. Yeah, I went to Bourban Street. But I also spent a lot of time hanging around the passenger depot in New Orleans. I never got to ride The City of New Orleans, but I watched it come and go many times. Also lots of Southern and L&N trains. The Crescent, Gulf Wind, Hummingbird and Pan American. Back in those days, security was unheard of. You could wander all over a train yard or depot, or engine terminal, and nobody bothered you. Sadly, today, you would probably wind up in jail.

[twhite]

I

On the classical side,

Pacific 231, an orchestrated piece, but you should hear Isao Tomita's version, all electronic music.

Dinwitty: 

Pacific 231 is quite a piece, isn't it?  Another classical piece that conjures up images of a steam loco--though I don't know whether or not it's intentional--is the second movement of Aaron Copland's "Third Symphony".  Sounds like a big Articulated struggling up a mountain grade.  It's pretty wild. 

Tom

[HarryHotspur]

Janice Joplin: Me and Bobby Mcgee

Arlo Guthrie: City of New Orleans

Both of which played on the AM rock radio station while I was rebuilding my layout to it's "almost" current configuration.

Rotor

How is "Me and Bobby McGee" a railroad song? 

I vote for "Chatanooga Choo Choo" as sung by Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein".

Harry...maybe not completely about trains, but...

"Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train
And I's feeling nearly as faded as my jeans.
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained,
It rode us all the way to New Orleans.

I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandanna,
I was playing soft while Bobby sang the blues.
Windshield wipers slapping time, I was holding Bobby's hand in mine,
We sang every song that driver knew..."

Rotor

 

Ah, thanks. I should have remembered that. Always assumed the diesel was a truck, though.

[tangerine-jack]

"Raising Steam" by Jethro Tull from the album "Crest of a Knave"

"Over high plains, through the snow...
Roll those tracks out, don't you know
I'm raising steam.
Thin vein creeping; hot blood flow...
Spill a little where the new towns grow.
I got my whole life hanging in a sack,
Heading out into that wide world wide.
You got your locomotive sitting on your track
And I don't care which way I ride.
I may not be coming back.

Left a lady with a heart
All in pieces come apart
Raising steam.
That engine up front must
Have a heart big enough for the both of us.
Riding shotgun on the sunset, stare it in the eye,
Rocking on my heels out to the west.
Funny how the whole world, historically,
Feels the urge to chase the sun to rest.
We may not be coming back.

Let me be your engineer...
Have you smiling ear to ear
Raising steam.
And will you tell me how it feels
When you're up and rolling on your driving wheels?
I got my whole life hanging in a sack,
Heading out into that wide world wide.
I'll be your locomotive blowing off it's stack
And I don't care which way I ride.
I may not be coming back.
Raising steam.

[exprail]

The City of New Orleans done by John Denver.

When I first started railroading as a trainman, back in 1968 on the IC, I deadheaded from Champaign to Centralia  on the CNO and other passenger trains frequently. It was quite a fast ride on good equipment.

Later when my boys were young I used to sing them to sleep with the song.

BOK 

[tangerine-jack]

Almost forgot there is "Trains" also by Jethro Tull

 

Here I am at the end of the day
with a cup of cold coffee
from the station buffet.
On trains, on trains I seem
to spend my life on trains.
See the blue suit banker in the ticket line.
Got an Evening Standard with Playboy
hidden behind.
On trains, on trains he seems
to spend his life on trains.

Time after time.
Was I just dreaming?
Did I help you aboard?
Full passenger service ---
let me help with the door.
Sit down take the weight off your feet.
There's a train full of people I'd like
you to meet.
On trains, on trains we love
to spend our lives on trains.

Join the secret world of trains.
Feel the pleasure. Touch the pain.
Drift into yesterday.

Once and again
I was just thinking.
We could meet sometime
on the 17.30 where
I usually find
my friends at the end of the day.
May we pay your fare, lady?
We should like you to stay
in our train. On trains ---
you'll have to spend your life
on trains.

I hear there's an office party on the 18.05.
You'll be home for Christmas if they
take you alive from the train.
Those trains, we have to spend our lives
on trains.

Once and again
I was just thinking.
We could meet any time
on number two platform
where I usually find
my friends at the end of the day.
On trains, trains, trains.

[Gandydancers]

OK, you've convinced a lurker to respond.  The first railroad song I remember was on a six inch platter.  A kiddy's song about a tugboat called Little Toot.  He "saved the day" by rescuing a car float with passenger cars of the Weehawken, Hoboken and Troy Railroad.  For a flatlander in the Midwest, the sounds of tugboats and the name Weehawken, Hoboken and Troy was funny.

The first RR song I remember running to the radio to hear was the Chattanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and then, Judy Garland's On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.  The first railroad song that gave me an emotional impact was Fast Freight by the Kingston Trio.  I bought their album because of it. As time passed by, and computers came along, I've rounded up a bunch of Fav RR songs.  Most of which are named here.

Neat topic, that brought back some hidden, but treasured memories.  Thanks, Johnny Reb

 

[Anonymous]

"Train Kept A Rollin'" - Aerosmith's version, live (Jimmy Page did a great version for his first encore during the "Outrider" tour).

[fec153]

Sentemental Journey

This Train Don't Stop Here Any More

Sentimental Journey by Buck Clayton and His All Stars. JAZZ.

Flip

 

Wow, Sentimental Journey seems a little too tame. Watching ARTHILL's slide show leads me to conclude that Art Hill, John Allen, Malcolm Furlow and John Olson may all have been base jumpers before they were model railroaders.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[PASMITH]

OK, you've convinced a lurker to respond.  The first railroad song I remember was on a six inch platter.  A kiddy's song about a tugboat called Little Toot.  He "saved the day" by rescuing a car float with passenger cars of the Weehawken, Hoboken and Troy Railroad.  For a flatlander in the Midwest, the sounds of tugboats and the name Weehawken, Hoboken and Troy was funny.

The first RR song I remember running to the radio to hear was the Chattanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and then, Judy Garland's On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.  The first railroad song that gave me an emotional impact was Fast Freight by the Kingston Trio.  I bought their album because of it. As time passed by, and computers came along, I've rounded up a bunch of Fav RR songs.  Most of which are named here.

Neat topic, that brought back some hidden, but treasured memories.  Thanks, Johnny Reb

 

Weehawken brings music to my ears. My father use to take me there on the West Shore Division of the NYC pulled by the K-11's. From there we would take the Weehawken Ferry into NYC and visit the Lionel exhibit at 15 east 22nd St. And then, there was the Hoboken Terminal, the original home of the NY Society of Model Engineers. Those were the good old days when things were the way they use to be.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[mikesmowers]

  I am kinda surprised no one has mentioned 

  Long Twin Silver Line    Bob Seiger
 

[Johnnny_reb]

It has been really fun reading the responses to my little inquiry. I think you all for the responses and have truly enjoyed them.

[PA&ERR]

I would have to say my favorite railroad song would have to be:

Charlie and the MTA (or The Man Who Never Returned!)

-George 

 

[route_rock]

  Ok time for an old trucker to clarify a few things here. The diesel in Bobby Mcgee is a a truck. Not a locomotive.Thumbing down is hitchhiking not hoboing.

  The song Johnnyreb has of Diesel on my tail,is also a trucking song. Back in the 60's 70's trucks were called diesels. The way slang changes over the years or terms even, can be confusing.

  Tang. Jack you forgot the classic Tull song Locomotive Breath (or I missed it perusing the posts here)Song is kind of fitting for me lol. sighs.Just wish old Charlie would steal the handle and the train it wont stop going no way to slow down( insert flute solo here)

   Borders has a CD called Train 45. All old train songs.Some real good folk songs from back in the 1800's type songs.Every song on there would get my vote.

  Plus of course Johnny Cash....Rock Island Line's,Paddy works on the railway(old Irish ditty) ANd the old track lining song that Aerosmith uses at the begining of their song ( I cant remember right off hand sheesh I am losing it) its also on that Train 45 CD and sung by Leadbelly.

   

 

[Dallas Model Works]

Train in Vain by The Clash.

Yeah, it's got nothing to do with trains, but the title is probably a play on Love In Vain and that song has got a train in it!