Juniatha @ Ulrich : You'll have to listen to it to understand - no transcription here , the sound , folks , it's in the constant bubbling sound ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_a_Rock_(But_the_Radio_Rolled_Me) http://www.lyricsmania.com/life_is_a_rock_but_the_radio_rolled_me_lyrics_reunion.html Regards Juniatha
@ Ulrich :
You'll have to listen to it to understand - no transcription here , the sound , folks , it's in the constant bubbling sound ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_a_Rock_(But_the_Radio_Rolled_Me)
http://www.lyricsmania.com/life_is_a_rock_but_the_radio_rolled_me_lyrics_reunion.html
Regards
Juniatha
Juniatha, thanks for sharing... It's been years since I heard that one. Never thought of it in a rail context until now..but the 70s was a great decade in so many ways.
This is one of those “movin on” songs that I always thought felt like a train. It has that persistence of a train ride, and trains were always emotionally connected to leaving someone behind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hdB5B5QuvE
greyhounds Ulrich: I can't think of any songs that are about a specific diesel locomotive...maybe because railroads were nolonger much in the public eye when diesels came in. Personally, the rhythmic cadence of an idling 251 engine IS music to my ears... they are almost like a living and breathing being. Maybe someone should write a song about an RS-18... . Well, not about a specific diesel, but... Johnny Cash had one about a fast rollin' "Streamline" come to show the folks. My 33 RPM LP has been long lost to history and progress but... As best I remember parts of it:: "Trains are big and black and smoke and steam, bigger than anything there is, at least that's the way it feels'" "There's somethin' big goin' on, and we're all in the way". Something about silver then: "She don't lay no smoke, she's fast rollin' "Streamline" come to show the folks. There was a restaurant chain called "Victoria Station" that constructed their facilities out of old boxcars. The Cash album was a part of their promotion. They hired him as a pitchman. The business failed and the boxcars were junked. Nice try guys.. Maybe next time a boat theme might work? Edit: Gotta' love the Internet. The Johnny Cash song is "Texas - 1947" from his album "Look At Them Beans". "Big and red and silver, she don't lay no smoke, she's a fast rollin' streamline come to show the folks". "Look out here she comes, she commin', look out there she goes, she's gone." Download from Amazon for $0.99.
Ulrich: I can't think of any songs that are about a specific diesel locomotive...maybe because railroads were nolonger much in the public eye when diesels came in. Personally, the rhythmic cadence of an idling 251 engine IS music to my ears... they are almost like a living and breathing being. Maybe someone should write a song about an RS-18... .
I can't think of any songs that are about a specific diesel locomotive...maybe because railroads were nolonger much in the public eye when diesels came in. Personally, the rhythmic cadence of an idling 251 engine IS music to my ears... they are almost like a living and breathing being. Maybe someone should write a song about an RS-18... .
Well, not about a specific diesel, but...
Johnny Cash had one about a fast rollin' "Streamline" come to show the folks. My 33 RPM LP has been long lost to history and progress but...
As best I remember parts of it::
"Trains are big and black and smoke and steam, bigger than anything there is, at least that's the way it feels'"
"There's somethin' big goin' on, and we're all in the way".
Something about silver then:
"She don't lay no smoke, she's fast rollin' "Streamline" come to show the folks.
There was a restaurant chain called "Victoria Station" that constructed their facilities out of old boxcars. The Cash album was a part of their promotion. They hired him as a pitchman.
The business failed and the boxcars were junked. Nice try guys.. Maybe next time a boat theme might work?
Edit: Gotta' love the Internet.
The Johnny Cash song is "Texas - 1947" from his album "Look At Them Beans".
"Big and red and silver, she don't lay no smoke, she's a fast rollin' streamline come to show the folks".
"Look out here she comes, she commin', look out there she goes, she's gone."
Download from Amazon for $0.99.
Well..that rules out anything made by Alco..
I see Ed posted a Neil Young song so here is another:
See The Sky About To Rain
Written and performed by Neil Young
From the 1974 Album “On The Beach”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(Neil_Young_album)
See The Sky About To RainSee the sky about to rain,broken clouds and rain.Locomotive, pull the train,whistle blowingthrough my brain.Signals curling on an open plain,rolling down the track again.See the sky about to rain.Some are bound for happiness,some are bound to glorySome are bound to live with less,who can tell your story?See the sky about to rain,broken clouds and rain.Locomotive, pull the train,whistle blowin'through my brain.Signals curlin' on an open plain,rollin' down the track again.See the sky about to rain.I was down in Dixie Land,played a silver fiddlePlayed it loud and then the manbroke it down the middle.See the sky about to rain.
Ulrich I can't think of any songs that are about a specific diesel locomotive...maybe because railroads were nolonger much in the public eye when diesels came in. Personally, the rhythmic cadence of an idling 251 engine IS music to my ears... they are almost like a living and breathing being. Maybe someone should write a song about an RS-18... .
The point is , if you have a piece of music (not intentionally RR connected by the composer) that you personally feel reminds you of a RR locomotive in action or at rest / a train or RR scene ?
Gee - I can't think of any song characterizing a specific diesel locomotive - but I believe that wouldn't be surprising ... Or , oops – wait a minute I have one :
Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) !
@ Firelock
Wagner's Tannhäuser - oh , I can see why ...
Richard Wagner's compositions generally were heavy stuff - that's fitting since the N&W J class isn't exactly without some aspects of massiveness , too .
( I have deleted my associations of Rock songs with European RR stuff )
Neil Young's "Southern Pacific".
" I drove the Highball, I fired the Daylight, when I turned 65, I couldnt see right"
"It was Mr. Jones, we got to let you go, it's company policy, you've got a pension tho."
Roll on Southern Pacific!
Per Juniatha's post asking if any of us have a piece of music that reminds us of a locomotive, well, I do. For some reason Wagners "Overture to Tannhauser" reminds me of an excursion behind the Norfolk and Western Class "J", the mighty 611. I can't tell you why, it just does. 611's, not German, and Wagner never heard of it, but you'd have to listen to the piece to see (hear?) what I'm talking about.
By the way, "Ride of the Valkyries" does NOT make me think of "Apocalypse Now"! On the other hand the "William Tell Overture" DOES make me think of the "Lone Ranger"! God bless Clayton Moore!
Firelock76 Good Lord, how could I forget these two! Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", a "song and story" about the building of the CPR. Johnny McCulloms "Santa Fe All The Way"
Good Lord, how could I forget these two!
Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", a "song and story" about the building of the CPR.
Johnny McCulloms "Santa Fe All The Way"
Gordon Lightfoot's song is really great to hear. Most all of the songs are interesting and this is one you might have heard that is more of a company song, but uplifting.
CZ Thanks to Utahrails for the song link. Click on http://utahrails.net/up/rollin-rr.php then on the Great Big Rolling Railroad to hear the song.
Apart
from known RR songs which deal with RR 'by default' so to speak , what I would find much more interesting is :
Do you have any music piece(s) that you feel are characterizing or describing or just fitting your favourite locomotive ? This may be Rock , Pop or Classic ... and although in my parlance the term 'locomotive' by default means 'steam locomotive' I'd be curious to learn of a music piece evocative of a diesel locomotive ...
Mind telling us ..?
rixflix Bucyrus, I know, I know. "She's gone everywhere but home". Rush's version was sort of an amalgam of Bukka Whites "Special Streamline" and "Panama Limited" and Rush is playing it to this day. Ya know, the white rock bands always got debits for reaping the royalties that the original artists never dreamed of. But thanks to the folkies.the Brits. the Bluegrrass people, alot of rockers (think Mickey Hart from The Dead and Bob Hite of Canned Heat), the R&B and Jazz stations, like WPFW Pacifica here in DC for keeping some of their careers and all those "originals" alive. Gonna have to pick up the Lightfoot too and always admired his "If I Could Read Your Mind". Wow, what a "rush", John Prine, Leo Kottke's "Tiny Island", and dear Steve Goodman who died too young. RIX "
Bucyrus,
I know, I know. "She's gone everywhere but home". Rush's version was sort of an amalgam of Bukka Whites "Special Streamline" and "Panama Limited" and Rush is playing it to this day. Ya know, the white rock bands always got debits for reaping the royalties that the original artists never dreamed of. But thanks to the folkies.the Brits. the Bluegrrass people, alot of rockers (think Mickey Hart from The Dead and Bob Hite of Canned Heat), the R&B and Jazz stations, like WPFW Pacifica here in DC for keeping some of their careers and all those "originals" alive.
Gonna have to pick up the Lightfoot too and always admired his "If I Could Read Your Mind".
Wow, what a "rush", John Prine, Leo Kottke's "Tiny Island", and dear Steve Goodman who died too young.
RIX
"
Here is Panama Limited by Bukka White.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS1JMdvvd7w&feature=related
It is different from the Tom Rush rendition as you mentioned it was. I was always a Tom Rush fan, and I just stumbled across his Panama Limited on Youtube. I like those train songs that put a train into a larger emotional context of everyday life. There is a lot of "movin' on" theme to many train songs.
Here is Bukka White's Speical Streamline that makes up half that Tom Rush amalgam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHsRrq1i0lo&NR=1
rixflix aka Captain Video. Blessed be Jean Shepherd and all His works!!! Hooray for 1939, the all time movie year!!! I took that ride on the Reading but my Baby caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride.
Readers of this forum over a certain age who've ever noticed my signature bar at the bottom of my posts know what my favourite Great Train Song is; "I'm Moving On" by Hank Snow. I've found a clip on Youtube of Hank performing the song on a Country Music show hosted by Johnny Cash. Johnny gives as good an introduction to Hank as I could so I won't retype it here. I will just say what Johnny didn't know was Hank would live until the age of 85 and die on his Rainbow Ranch at Madison Tennessee in 1999.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL_fnyHwr68
For those of you who didn't catch my favourite line in country music here is another clip from 1950.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti4G1AX0v-g&feature=related
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Ulrich, thanks for the Gordon Lightfoot posting. I think it was the Canadian historian Pierre Berton who said Gordon Lightfoots song said more about the building of the CPR in seven minutes than his own book said in 400 pages. I can well belive it!
Here's another one from Canada..Gordon Lightfoot's "Railroad Trilogy", about the construction of the CPR.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzo6Otpgj-E
Just in case you need your emotional gas tank topped off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZwVcsANtWQ
Oh yes, Taj Mahal's "She Caught the Katy" (see below).and Vernon Dalhart's "Wreck of the Old 97" on the Victor Tallking Machines Co, label, although his "The Prisoner's Song" (o'er these prison walls I would fly) remains my favorite among his works. You Country guys should Wiki him to life.
Can't reccomend the Paul Buttrerfield Band's "Two Trains A'running" but the LP side filling "East-West" bends my mind to this day.Butterfield. Bloomfied, Natalfin, what a band, that broke up in to Electric Flag and the Supersession album with Stevie Stills from Buffalo Springfield.
"The Rock Island Line (it's a mighy fine line)" was that Leadbelly's or John Hurt's ?
I've got all these LP's and nothing to play 'em on. Can anyonee recommend an economical play system.? I'm way past the days when I had an Akai M9 recorder, a Dual 1019 turntable, a Pioneer tuner/amp and speakers, and an Uher portable recorder. Remember Ampex 8" tapes?
"Steel Rail Blues" I miss Hank
Rixflix
5:15 by The Who
Panama Limited by Tom Rush:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdOToAXo5WQ&feature=related
Don't start me talkin' "Cause I'll tell erverything I knows". Jesse Fuller's "The Monkey and the Engineer", Hank William's "Steel Rail Blues", Bob Dylan riding down the double E with the moon lookin' pretty........... Flatt & Scruggs OBS and Doc Watson, and Seldom Scenes "Train From Poor Valley", Tom Rush's" Panama Limited" (he gets it rolling!!!). Then The Stones "there were two lights on behind" but forget the tune.
Glenn Miller had a jumpin' band and I love all train related tunes, or ballads, or joyous songs, but it's interesting how many have to do with departure, .lost loves, to the promised land, etc. And Gladys I love Ya for Midnight Train.
Train music has to be evocotive for me. Whether the Blues or R&B through Jazz (has Al Green ever recorded a train song, "cause I'd buy it) and if I was ever stranded on a desert island I'd hope it would be with Sam Cooke, Roberta Flack and Susan Sarandon. With some kind of music player to back us up of course.
RIX.
From the 1973 movie "Emperor of the North" - see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070030/
"A Man and a Train"Lyrics by Hal DavidMusic by Frank De VolSung by Marty Robbins
Here's one from Murray McLaughlan...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y-_svMmUCQ
"Bahn Frei" was apparently composed by Johann's brother, Eduard Strauss. Johann's work, particularly "Blue Danube," was an early influence in my own musical tastes, thanks to its use in the soundtrack to "2001-A Space Odyssey." That soundtrack, and the synthesizer work "Switched On Bach," were heard by my very young ears (thanks, dad) long before I was listening to everything from Neil Young to Neil Diamond on the radio in the early 70s. Very long list of classical, country, folk, rock, pop, and other artists I could ramble on about here, but let me just list a handful of railroad-oriented tunes that come to mind.
"Driving the Last Spike," by Genesis. Singer/drummer Phil Collins really did the lyrics and emotion right in this tribute to the early builders of England's railways. Phil's an avid train buff and made quite a few headlines in recent years by announcing he had put his musical career on hiatus in order to finish a model railroad he was building with his youngest son(s).
"Last Train to Istanbul," by Steve Hackett, guitarist and songwriter extraordinaire who left Genesis in the late 70s. It's off his recent "Out of the Tunnel's Mouth" CD, steam train with Steve on the cover. Steve's a train buff too, a bit more toward the vintage steam side of things. He managed to post frequent photos of his encounters with various forms of railroading during his recent world tour.
"Honky Tonk Train Blues," by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. A bluesy instrumental piano and horns piece. Perhaps a bit too eclectic for those who lean only toward Neil Young's "Southern Pacific" or the Dead's "Casey Jones."
As a child my parents collected antiques. I inherited a wind-up victrola record player with those quarter inch thick records. My favorite ( and I still know all the words) was the "Wreck of the Ole 97".
I saw the movie "Harvey Girls" recently, starring Judy Garland.
I think it dates to 1939 and is in colour. It was made using a Virginia and Truckee 4-4-0 as "number 49". The big production number covers the arrival and departure of the train with the cast marching alongside the train as it leaves until it accelerates away..
Do yuh hear that whistle down the line?I figure that it's engine number forty nine,She's the only one that'll sound that way.On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.See the ol' smoke risin' 'round the bend,I reckon that she knows she's gonna meet a friend,Folks around these parts get the time o' dayFrom the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.Here she comes!Ooh, ooh, ooh,Hey, Jim, yuh better git the rig!Ooh, ooh, ooh,She's got a list o' passengers that's pretty bigAnd they'll all want lifts to Brown's Hotel,'Cause lots o' them been travelin' for quite a spell,All the way to Californiay,On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.
The song was a big hit in the 1940s
Also we shouldn't forget Johnnie B. Goode, the second verse..
He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sackGo sit beneath the tree by the railroad trackOh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shadeStrumming with the rhythm that the drivers madePeople passing by they would stop and sayOh my that little country boy could play
The words probably mean more with the music...
M636C
@ firelock
Oh , my goodness , the Chattanooga Choo-Choo – how could I forget that one ! It was a favorite of my father’s – although mom never got fully convinced it wasn’t just because of the Andrew Sisters …
http://www.mp3lyrics.org/t/the-andrews-sisters/the-chattanooga/
Pardon me, boy, Is this the Chattanooga choo choo? Track twenty-nine Boy, you can give me a shine I can afford To board a Chattanooga choo choo I've got my fare And just a trifle to spare You leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to four Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore Dinner in the diner Nothing could be finer Than to have your ham an' eggs in Carolina When you hear the whistle blowin' eight to the bar Then you know that Tennessee is not very far Shovel all the coal in Gotta keep a-rollin' Woo, woo, Chattanooga there you are There's gonna be A certain party at the station Satin and lace I used to call funny face She's gonna cry Until I tell her that I'll never roam So Chattanooga choo choo Won't you choo-choo me home Chattanooga choo choo Won't you choo-choo me home
Udo Lindenberg, German singer song writer, had made a German text version of it , not in full earnest , ‘Sonderzug nach Pankow’ – that was shortly before the fall of the wall when East Germany opened the border . Udo sang to Erich ‘Honey’ Honegger (not the composer) general secretary of ‘the party’ SED (or in other words minister president of DDR) as if he was just as relaxed a person as anyone and you could talk to him nonchalantly , easy-going as to your buddy . Beneath the joking it had a message , though , and probably Udo was right about that in his own way : ease down , allow for releasing some pressure – only that the real Erich Honegger was much to stiff and his mind much too fenced in to understand the words – let alone do something relaxing the building tension . The East Germans loved the song, of course but Honegger didn’t even let Lindenberg have a concert in East-Berlin – ‘corse not . The only thing the SED party had learned in all those decades was just to answer pressure with more pressure – however time was running out fast and as Gorbachev had said on his last visit to East-Berlin, life would pass those who don’t keep up with it . So , very soon , we could freely venture to the eastern part of the city and I discovered the Pankow special still got a chance to have a 52-80 Decapod up front …
Udo Lindenberg, German singer song writer, had made a German text version of it , not in full earnest , ‘Sonderzug nach Pankow’ – that was shortly before the fall of the wall when
Udo’s site : http://www.udo-lindenberg.de/chattanooga_choo_choo.57775.htm
Here’s the lyrics :
(you can only fit the words into the song by Udo’s redoubtable mumbling , like " Entschuldigen Sie " becomes " ’tshuljn-See " and so on – it’s kind of special , you might say if you can understand Udo , you really do know German!)
Entschuldigen Sie, ist das der Sonderzug nach Pankow ich muß mal eben dahin, mal eben nach Ost-Berlin ich muß da was klären, mit eurem Oberindianer ich bin ein Jodeltalent, und ich will da spielen mit 'ner Band Ich hab'n Fläschchen Cognac mit, und das schmeckt sehr lecker das schlürf' ich dann ganz locker mit dem Erich Honecker und ich sag': Ey, Honey, ich sing' für wenig Money im Republik-Palast, wenn ihr mich laßt all die ganzen Schlageraffen dürfen da singen dürfen ihren ganzen Schrott zum Vortrage bringen Honey, ich glaub', Du bist doch eigentlich auch ganz locker ich weiß, tief in dir drin, bist Du eigentlich auch 'n Rocker du ziehst dir doch heimlich auch gerne mal die Lederjacke an und schließt Dich ein auf'm Klo und hörst West-Radio Hallo, Erich, kannst mich hören Hallölöchen - Hallo Hallo, Honey, kannst' mich hören Hallo Halli, Halli Hallo Joddelido (Genosse Erich, im übrigen hat der Oberste Sowjet nichts gegen ein Gastspiel von Herrn Lindenberg in der DDR.)
-
@ Deggesty
Yeah , the song has some lyrics that take to the heart – with me it’s the line ‘this train’s got to disappear in railroad blues’ – I get the blues then , I guess …
Ridin' on the City of New Orleans Illinois Central, Monday mornin' rail 15 cars & 15 restless riders Three conductors, 25 sacks of mail All along the southbound odyssey the train pulls out of Kankakee Rolls along past houses, farms & fields Passin' graves that have no name, freight yards full of old black men And the graveyards of rusted automobiles Good mornin' America, how are you? Don't you know me? I'm your native son! I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car Penny a point, ain't no one keepin' score Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle And feel the wheels rumblin' neath the floor And the sons of Pullman porters & the sons of engineers Ride their fathers' magic carpets made of steel Mothers with their babes asleep, rockin' to the gentle beat And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel Good mornin' America, how are you? Say don't you know me? I'm your native son! I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans. I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done. Night time on the City of New Orleans Changin' cars in Memphis, Tennessee Halfway home, we'll be there by mornin' Thru the Mississippi darkness rollin' down to the sea But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream And the steel rail still ain't heard the news The conductor sings his songs again "The passengers will please refrain: This train got the disappea rin' railroad blues Good night America, how are you? Say don't you know me? I'm your native son! I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans. I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done.
- Oh , the Wabash Cannon Ball – another well know train !
@ Greyhounds
Oh – wow – didn’t know that song before ! Yess – that’s it ! Got a cool rhythm an driving power that fits steam railroading … thank you for posting the link !
= J =
greyhounds Well, I posted this one before, but here's my new favorite. It replaced "Fireball Mail" by Roy Acuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV9j1LqLYMU "Rail and Machine Fire, Smoke and Steam". I do not believe anyone has ever said it better.
Well, I posted this one before, but here's my new favorite. It replaced "Fireball Mail" by Roy Acuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV9j1LqLYMU
"Rail and Machine Fire, Smoke and Steam".
I do not believe anyone has ever said it better.
Thanks for posting...I like it too. I wonder if someone will ever write a song about a GE ES4400CW grinding up a grade with a string of double stacks... I love the chanting rhythmic sound of those engines when they're opened wide up...
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