The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19719 Message #3294065
Posted By: GUEST,mg
21-Jan-12 - 04:54 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Casey Jones
Subject: Origins: Casey Jones
Just heard a special on Casey Jones on KMUN Astoria OR USA. They said the original song was written by a Saunders, his assistant engineer. Saunders was African American, at time when there was so much discrimination on the railroads. Was Casey Jones African American?
They also played this supremely nasty song about Casey Jones, sung by Peter Seeger. I see it was written by Joe Hill, which surprises me because I had not heard any nasty ones from him before..it was just plain mean. Was Casey Jones a scab? The song almost seemed to rejoice in his accident and sent him to heaven to scab for the angels and then to hell I think.
There was a kid show on TV I think called Casey Jones..about a kid I think..this was an era where there were lots of boy and his father and no mother TV shows...they sang Casey Jones steaming and a rolling Casey Jones you never have to guess when y ou hear the tooting?? of the whistle it's Casey at the throttle of the Cannonball express.