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Best Railroad Songs Locked

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Posted by Euclid on Thursday, June 23, 2016 11:21 PM
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Posted by Paul of Covington on Friday, June 24, 2016 1:09 AM

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by wanswheel on Friday, June 24, 2016 12:16 PM

Euclid

I forgot Emmylou was ever young.

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Posted by wanswheel on Friday, June 24, 2016 12:30 PM

Johnny Cash and the Stanley Brothers in 1964.  It seems Led Zep infringed their song title.

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Posted by Buslist on Friday, June 24, 2016 12:32 PM

Not exactly a song.

Moose turd pie.

 

https://youtu.be/0zb1qsVqjwg

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Posted by Euclid on Friday, June 24, 2016 1:14 PM

wanswheel
 
Euclid

 

I forgot Emmylou was ever young.

 

A couple years ago, they took a lot of her high quality early videos off of Youtube.  I really like her early era circa 1977.  This is an example, although not live and not a train song: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3LQeRqTBK4

 

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Posted by Euclid on Friday, June 24, 2016 1:29 PM
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Posted by wanswheel on Friday, June 24, 2016 1:46 PM

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Sunday, June 26, 2016 10:00 PM

I have a couple favorites.

1. Mystery Train - Elvis Presley

2. Cmon N Ride It - Quad City DJs

3. Little Red Caboose - Buckwheat Zydeco

4. The Train is Coming - Ken Boothe

5. Runaway Train - Soul Asylum

6. Life is Like a Mountain Railroad - Boxcar Willie

7. Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight

8. Midnight Special - Johnny Rivers 

9. Wreck of the Ole 97 - ????

10. Choo Choo Bugaloo - Buckwheat Zydeco

 

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, June 30, 2016 6:19 PM

Inspired  by the rhythm of train wheels:

And, for tree68, here is something extraordinary from the close of a Mass celebrating the Paris firefighters:  Listen, and be moved.

 

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Posted by overall on Thursday, June 30, 2016 7:54 PM

There is a bluegrass song called Eastbound Freight Train. A live band used to sing it on the Sewanee Steam Special years ago. This train was pulled by none other than NS 611. It was also pulled at times by 1218.

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Posted by Euclid on Saturday, July 2, 2016 3:23 PM

Here is Milwaukee Blues, an old song by Charlie Poole sung here by Dom Flemons, formerly with the Carolina Chocolate Drops:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf43lUsqnHw

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Posted by M636C on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 8:47 PM

I'm not a big fan of DVDs, butout here in Australia, the Post Office is trying to turn its shopfronts into stores with other products in order to remain open in the face of falling letter traffic (but expanding parcels business). 

They sell a lot of stationery items, digital media and so on.

Anyway to return to relevance, they recently offered movie DVDs at $5 each, including several old Musicals, including "The Harvey Girls".

At that price I had to have one. As well as the full movie, there is a version of the full "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" with real stereo sound. The original production used multiple microphones which were separately recorded and have been combined in post production into good quality stereo.

There is also an interview with Director George Sidney where he speaks over the movie action as vision. Two points were that he described bringing the train down to Hollywood from Truckee by road in 1945 using war surplus aircraft transporters, and the various difficulties they faced. He also spoke about the final scene in the big production number where the cast were in the path of the locomotive cylinder drain cocks as it started. I'd noticed this but the director was fully aware of it at the time, and praised the cast.

The song won the Academy Award in 1946.

I was born in 1948, and I remember in the early 1950s that my Father would sing the chorus on occasions, but at the time I had no idea what it was all about.

M636C

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Thursday, July 7, 2016 1:59 PM

   Do you realize how hard it is to say, "The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"?   Not sing it, say it.

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Posted by Ulrich on Thursday, July 7, 2016 3:50 PM

Midnight Special by CCR. 

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, July 7, 2016 4:03 PM

Paul of Covington

   Do you realize how hard it is to say, "The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"?   Not sing it, say it....

Darned near impossible...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by M636C on Thursday, July 7, 2016 7:59 PM

tree68

 

 
Paul of Covington

   Do you realize how hard it is to say, "The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"?   Not sing it, say it....

 

 

Darned near impossible...

 

 

There is some comment in the director's discussion on the "Harvey Girls" DVD about the music for the big production number, how it was supposed to evoke the sound of a train but with syncopation that matched the railroad name.

These guys were real professionals, and the song didn't get an Oscar by accident.

M636C

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Posted by wanswheel on Friday, September 23, 2016 2:01 PM
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Posted by MikeF90 on Friday, September 23, 2016 7:09 PM

R.I.P. Mr. Loudermilk.

As long as we're firing up this thread again .... Headphones

"Old Charlie stole the handle and
The train it won't stop going
No way to slow down."

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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, October 1, 2016 11:30 AM
Fifty years ago my father restored an airplane, an Aeronca 7AC in our backyard. He had a record of Oscar Brand's called "Songs For The Madcap Airman." Humourous stuff as I recall.
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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, October 1, 2016 11:37 AM
And then there's Axel Zwingenberger, one of the best Boogie-Woogie pianists ever. He put out a book of photos of the last mainline steam to run in Eastern Germany (including narrow-gauge) and some of the photos were in Trains magazine years ago. I have the book, "Vom Zauber der Zuge" and it came with a CD of his music as well as sheet music. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NecIOby9uXo
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Posted by alphas on Saturday, October 1, 2016 10:56 PM

I was always partial to Stonewall Jackson's "Smoke Along the Tracks" which was a big and long lasting hit on the local radio back when I was a teenager in 59-60.    The Emmy Lou Harris cover of it was also good.

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Posted by wanswheel on Thursday, October 13, 2016 9:58 AM
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Posted by wanswheel on Sunday, October 23, 2016 12:04 AM

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Posted by Miningman on Sunday, October 23, 2016 1:17 AM

Wanswheel- Remarakable win by the Cubs tonight..history! ...and my beloved Blackhawks came from behind by 2 goals with 2 minutes left to defeat Toronto 5-4 in a shootout. 

Hard to believe but there was a time when I was as young as Steve Goodman in that clip...I think it was the Pleistocene.  

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Posted by wanswheel on Sunday, October 23, 2016 11:28 AM

Miningman

I think it was the Pleistocene.  

Speaking of geology...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Schmitt

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17CONO.html

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Posted by ACY Tom on Sunday, October 23, 2016 11:34 AM

 

Miningman

Hard to believe but there was a time when I was as young as Steve Goodman in that clip...I think it was the Pleistocene.  

Yes, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. I remember the first time I heard Steve singing "City" at the Quiet Knight. He also wrote The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request, but maybe this isn't the time for that song. 

Tom

 
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Posted by wanswheel on Sunday, October 23, 2016 12:00 PM

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Posted by ACY Tom on Sunday, October 23, 2016 8:26 PM

wanswheel

 

Jethro Burns on Mandolin! It don't get much better than that!
 
Tom
 
P.S. According to his lyric in The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request, Steve has season's tickets to watch the Angels play (not the ones from California), and that's just what he's gonna do. 

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