CNSFWhat? No one's nominated Liz Phair's 'Baby Got Going' yet? Can't believe it.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I may have missed it, but I do not recall that anyone has mentioned "Gonna take a sentimental journey."
Johnny
Mel McDaniel -Let It Roll
http://youtu.be/vUxlKIOVXqc
My favorites are any & all of them, sad to glad. Any song about trains and rails helps keep alive a part of our history.
"Why Do They All Take The Night Boat To Albany and Grab The Next Train To New York?"
"Hey Engineer"
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.
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?
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.
It's not really a "train" song as such, but Gene Autry has a song called "The Ballad of Jimmy Rogers."
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.
Rock island Line by Johnny Cash on Sun Records
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...
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?
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)
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.
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'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
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.
Monkey and the Engineer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdfiXBlwTsQ
Steve
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.
Blue Water Line-The Brothers Four
Down by the Station-The Four Preps
My favorite is Merle Haggard's "Miner's Silver Ghost".
Someone else may have mentioned it but Hobos Lullaby, Emmylou Harris and/or Woody Guthrie for me.
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