Train songs

[NightrainAFD1987]

Train Kept A Rollin' -the Yardbirds version and the Aerosmith version

  

[videomaker]

Have any of you guys ever heard of Jimmie Rogers? The Blue Yodeler? He was the first singin hobo ! Wrote many many songs about the railroad..Also Stonewall Jackson did a song called Smoke Along the Track..Danny

[spokyone]

Jimmie Rogers
My father called him the singing brakeman. "Blue yodel #9". In it he sings, "T for Texas, T for Tennessee.  And "waiting for a train". I believe he is in "country hall of fame" in Nashville.

[videomaker]

Spokeyone, Your right , I dont know how old any of you guys/girls are on here so I just have to ask..But JR was the singin breakman I think I heard somewhere long ago he did work the L&N or one of its subs..Danny

[penncentral2002]

How about "Driver 8" by R.E.M. whose video was filmed at the Chessie System Clifton Forge, VA Yard?  Nice views of Chessie locomotives in that video.

Wilco has a song titled "Dash 9" which is pretty good.

Pat Boone's version of "Crazy Train" is hilarious.  Also hilarious is a song by The Red Krayola entitled "People Get Ready, the Train is Not Coming" (obviously the title is based on the great Impressions number "People Get Ready").  Just last year "People Get Ready" was sampled by a rap group called Code Red for a song called "All Aboard" which may be the only train rap songs I have ever heard (and its pretty good).

Thin White Rope's live version of "The Wreck of the Old '97" is another good more recent train number - the early country stable actually makes a good proto-grunge song.

Its not a song, but George Clinton always used to call Grand Funk Railroad "Grand Fraud Railroad" in the liner notes of Funkadelic albums - that always cracks me up.

[Railfan1]

Have any of you guys ever heard of Jimmie Rogers? The Blue Yodeler?

Yes actually.

[Railfan1]

How about the song by Razzy Bailey? Anyone ever heard that song? Can't think of the name.

[vlmuke]

you forgot Casey Jones by the Dead

Rich

[TheS.P.caboose]

Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

[spokyone]

Jimmie Rogers did work on the New Orleans & Northeastern as a brakeman and maybe other roads also. He moved to AZ and worked as a switchman for the SP for a short time. Trivia: Louis Armstrong played trumpet on one of his songs.
Here is pic of only movie he was in.

[penncentral2002]

Oh, I forgot a good one - "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" by Gang of Four

[dsmith]

My favorite Christmas toy train song:  "Little Toy Trains" by Roger Miller, also recorded as "Old Toy Trains".  If you ever recieved a toy train for Christmas as a child, this song has all the nostalgia you could ask for.

Little Toy Trains

Little toy trains, little toy tracks
Little toy drums, comin' from a sack
Carried by a man dressed in white and red
Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed

Close your eyes, listen to the skies
All is calm, all is well
Soon you'll hear Kris Kringle and the jingle bells

Bringin' little toy trains and little toy tracks
Little toy drums, comin' from a sack
Carried by a man dressed in white and red
Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed

So, close your eyes and listen to the skies
All is calm, all is well
Soon you'll hear Kris Kringle and the jingle bells

Bringin' little toy trains and little toy tracks
Little toy drums, comin' from a sack
Carried by a man dressed in white and red
Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed
Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed

[dsmith]

test

[22dec]

My nine month old grand daughter loves this one-

Down at the station early in the morning

See the little Puffer Bellies all in a row

See the engine driver pull the little handle

Chug, chug, toot, toot

Off they go.


Don

[joemcspadden]

Don't forget Johnny Cash's version of "The Wreck of the Old 97"

Joe Mc

[Chris30]

Here's a good one for you...

There's this singer/songwritter by the name of Todd Snider who does rock, country, folk, just about anything. He's also very funny. Anyway, he's playing a show at this dive bar in Kansas City called Knuckleheads and he starts talking about a song of his called The Train Song. It's about a deceased friend who always used to call him over and ask him to play some train songs. So, he starts playing the song and two seconds later there's a train horn. The bar, it turns out, it right up against some railroad tracks in KC. Mr. Snider keeps playing The Train Song as the horm blasts a few more times and then you can hear the train go by behind the bar. Kinda spooky if you ask me.

CC

[Falcon48]

What's your favorite train-related song?



My favorites include Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash, On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe as sung by Bing Crosby, and Chattanooga Choo-Choo as recorded by Glenn Miller.

(1) Mother's Lying in a Box in the Baggage Coach Ahead (an awful piece, but it's got a great title)

(2) Hey Engineer! (novelty tune spoofing all the songs about taking trains back to the South)

(3) This Train Don't Carry No Gamblers (Turk Murphy novelty version)

(4) Two-Nineteen Blues (only recording I know was by Jelly Roll Morton in a Library of Congress interview in 1941) 

(5) The Rock Island Line (1950's novelty version)

(6) Charlie and the MTA (which is actually set to a much older railroad tune - it may be Wreck of the Old 97 but, off the top of my head, I'm not sure)

(7) The Trolley Song (from Meet Me In St. Louis)

(8) Shuffle Off to Buffalo (from 42nd Street)

[JoeKoh]

well there is a song by blackfoot called "train train".It really makes you think about how a train rolls down the line.

stay safe

Joe

[locomutt]

What's your favorite train-related song?



My favorites include Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash, On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe as sung by Bing Crosby, and Chattanooga Choo-Choo as recorded by Glenn Miller.

(1) Mother's Lying in a Box in the Baggage Coach Ahead (an awful piece, but it's got a great title)

(2) Hey Engineer! (novelty tune spoofing all the songs about taking trains back to the South)

(3) This Train Don't Carry No Gamblers (Turk Murphy novelty version)

(4) Two-Nineteen Blues (only recording I know was by Jelly Roll Morton in a Library of Congress interview in 1941) 

(5) The Rock Island Line (1950's novelty version)

(6) Charlie and the MTA (which is actually set to a much older railroad tune - it may be Wreck of the Old 97 but, off the top of my head, I'm not sure)

(7) The Trolley Song (from Meet Me In St. Louis)

(8) Shuffle Off to Buffalo (from 42nd Street)

 

For number 6, are you referring to the Smother's Brothers song of the late 60s, early 70s? 

[ChuckCobleigh]

 

(2) Hey Engineer! (novelty tune spoofing all the songs about taking trains back to the South)

Which, of course, brings to mind Hey Porter, Johnny Cash's first hit record about taking a train back to the South, and a darned enjoyable one even to this day.  Like it when it comes up in the iPod.

[bajadog]

City of New Orleans - Arlo

Casey Jones - Grateful Dead

 

woof-woof

[cnwfan51]

   All of the above plus  We're great big rollin Railroad the music from the Union Pacific railroad commericals in the early 70s    :arry

[vlmuke]

Here's one the wife suggested

Crazy Train By Ozzy

or Runaway Train by Soul Asylum

[Ishmael]

Have any of you guys ever heard of Jimmie Rogers? The Blue Yodeler? He was the first singin hobo ! Wrote many many songs about the railroad..Also Stonewall Jackson did a song called Smoke Along the Track..Danny

Glad to hear some of you younger fellows have heard of Jimmie Rodgers. His version of "Waiting for a Train" is a classic and I have it on a CD of country songs. He died of tuberculosis, and I read where he had to have a bed handy during his last recording session so he could lay down and catch his breath between songs. Sad story.

I like John Prine and Steve Goodman's version of City of New Orleans. After all, Steve wrote it.

Leadbelly's version of Rock Island Line. Bill Monroe's version of Orange Blossom Special is another of my favorites.

Lots of good RR songs. Some other songs with references to trains in them, such as "Blues in the Night." ("Hear that lonesome whistle, blowin' cross the trestle, woo-ee)

[myred02]

- City of New Orleans by Johnny Cash

- Tuesday's Gone (mentions a train many times) The Metallica cover is my personal favorite.

 -Brandon

[bajadog]

Another suggestion, Harry Nillson's, "Nobody Cares About the Railroads Anymore."  Great song.

[Tharmeni]

 

"The Day After Tomorrow Is Coming On A Train" (also called the Burlington Northern Song) is one of my favorites.

 

 

[Ted Marshall]

Does "C'mon N Ride It (The Train)" by the Quad City DJ's qualify as a train song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9vZ_akgmXU

 

[Joe the Photog]

In the late 90s, a teenage girl named Shannon Curfman released a song called "No Riders." She's no Backstreet Britney Agulera. It's a really good blues song and she plays guitar on it. Not sure who wrote it.

 http://www.shannoncurfman.com/noriders.htm

 

[Anonymous]

I am sending you a 6 box set of "Train Songs For Train song Haters"