Origins: The Longest Train/Who's Gonna Shoe

Subject: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: GUEST,Jonathan Hewlett
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 06:46 PM

Can anyone give me the lyrics to "THE LONGEST TRAIN" by Convicts of Bellwood Prison Camp? I heard this song on Train 45, by Rounder Records.
The words are hard to understand. Thank You.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: Barry Finn
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 07:55 PM

You can here the sample of The Longest Train here. It's just a sample off of "Train 45: Railroad Songs Of The Early 1900s, Classic Railroad Songs (Rounder Series)".
Good luck, the field recording is very hard to understand but usually the words come with the jacket incorperated in the sleeve notes. Maybe someone out there has a copy

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 08:25 PM

You're right, Barry - the recording IS very hard to understand. Unfortunately, the CD booklet does not include lyrics. Norm Cohen's Long Steel Rail says "the Longest Train" is a version of "In the Pines" - but Cohen does not provide a transcription of this version.
Maybe I'll find time to work on a transcription later.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: Amos
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 08:27 PM

The voices sound like deep Cajun or even Coast Islander pigeon. But the lines are a variant of "Longest Train" and "The Only Woman I Ever Did Love" and "Lonesome Road" and "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" cluster. Here's a version Doc Watson does:

Lonesome Road

Look up, look down that lonesome road
Hang down your little head and cry my love,
Hang down your head and cry

The best of friends must part some day
And why not you and I my love,
And why not you and I

The longest train I ever did see
Was on that Georgia line my love,
Was on that Georgia line

The only girl I've ever loved
Is on that train and gone my love,
Is on that train and gone

The darkest night I ever saw
Was the night I left my home love,
Was the night I left my home

I never thought when we first met
This awful day would come my love,
This awful day would come.

**repeat first two verses again**"

This variation found on a 1977 United Artists recording of
Doc & Merle Watson titled ""Lonesome Road""(from DT)

There is also a variant of "I Never Shall Marry" that uses this structure, IIRC.


A

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LONGEST TRAIN I EVER SAW
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 09:21 PM

There's a version in the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection,

http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/

with links to audio files and a transcription:-

The Longest Train

The Longest Train I Ever Saw
Cat. #1122 (MFH #780) - As sung by Ollie Gilbert, Mountain View, Arkansas on April 9, 1970

VERSE 1
The longest train I ever saw
Run by Joe Brown's coal mine
The headlight passed at six o'clock
The cab came by at nine

VERSE 2
The prettiest girl I ever saw
Is on that train an' gone
Her eyes were blue, her cheeks was brown
An' her hair is hung way down

VERSE 3
Th train it wrecked at four miles
It killed my Evalane
Her head was found in th driver's seat
Her poor body hain't been found

VERSE 4
Th longest way, th longest day
The longest night
Was th day Evalane died

VERSE 5
I walked th track
Whole day alone
I bowed my head an' cried

VERSE 6
Th long steel rail, the short cross ties
They carried away
The arms that brought me safely here
But I'll make it home, someday

I find it sings better if you join up verses 4 & 5 above. I think I've also interpolated bits from somewhere else (not sure where?) to get what I sing (below).

The Longest Train I Ever Saw

The longest train I ever saw
Run by Joe Brown's coal mine;
The headlight passed about six o'clock,
The caboose came by about nine.

The prettiest girl I ever saw
Is on that train and gone;
Her eyes were blue, her cheeks were brown,
An' her hair hung down so long.

The train it wrecked about four miles out,
It killed my Evalane;
Her head was found in the driver's seat,
Her poor body ain't never been found.

The longest day, and the longest night
Was the day my Evalane died;
I walked the track the whole day alone,
An I bowed my head an' cried.

Those long steel rails, and those short cross ties
Have carried away
The arms that brought me safely here,
But I'll make it home someday.

The longest train I ever saw
Run by Joe Brown's coal mine;
The engine passed about six o'clock,
The caboose came by about nine.


In The Pines (also in the Max Hunter Collection) has a verse beginning "The longest train", but mentions the "Mason line" as the location.

Ross

Subject: ADD: The Longest Train
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Mar 09 - 02:56 AM

There's no transcription on the Train 45 CD, but there IS on on the Georgia: Deep River of Song CD, which includes the same cut, recorded by John and Alan Lomax at Bellwood Prison Camp, Atlanta, Georgia, on December 11-12, 1934.

THE LONGEST TRAIN

The long—, oh huh, —est train, oh, buddy that I ev—, buddy, that I ever seen. Uh huh.
The long—, Lord, Lord, —est train, oh huh, oh, buddy that I ev—, buddy that/ever seen, uh huh.
The long—, Lord, Lord, —est train, oh, buddy, that I ev—, buddy that/ever done seen, uh huh.
It was 'round, 'round Joe Brown's, 'round Joe Brown's coal mine, uh huh.

The train, Lord, Lord, come by oh, buddy 'bout half, buddy 'bout half past nine, uh huh.
The train, Lord, Lord, come by oh, buddy 'bout half, buddy 'bout half past nine, uh huh.
The train, Lord, Lord, come by uh huh, oh, buddy 'bout half, buddy 'bout half past nine, oh huh,
And never never come by never come by again, uh huh.

The prettiest, Lord, Lord, little girl, uh huh, oh, buddy, that I ev-, buddy that I ever done seen, uh huh.
The prettiest, pretti—, Lord, Lord, little girl, uh huh, oh, buddy that I ev—, buddy that I ever seen, uh huh.
The prettiest, Lord, Lord, prettiest girl, oh, buddy, that I ever; buddy that I ever done seen, uh huh,
Was 'round, 'round Joe Brown's, 'round Joe Brown's coal mine, oh huh.

Her eyes, eyes was blue, Lord, buddy and her cheeks, buddy and her cheeks were brown, uh huh.
Her eyes, eyes was blue, uh huh, oh, buddy and her cheeks, buddy, and her cheeks was brown, uh huh.
Her eyes, Lord, Lord, was blue, oh, buddy and her cheeks, buddy and her cheeks was brown, uh huh,
And her hair; hair; it hung, hair; it hung way down, uh huh.

The train, Lord, Lord, had a wreck, uh huh, oh, buddy, at Four; at Four Mile Hill, uh huh.
The train, train, buddy had a wreck, uh huh, oh, buddy, at Four, buddy, at Four Mile Hill, uh huh.
The train, Lord, Lord, had a wreck, uh huh, oh, buddy at Four; buddy at Four Mile Hill, uh huh,
And killed, it killed Evelin—, killed Evelina dead, uh huh.

Her head, Lord, Lord, was found, uh huh, oh, buddy in the drive—, buddy in the drivin' wheel, Uh, huh.
Her head, head, Lord, was found, uh huh, oh, buddy in the drive—, buddy in be drivin' wheel, uh huh.
Her head, Lordy and her head was found, uh huh, oh, buddy, in the drive—, buddy in the drivin' wheel, uh huh.
Her body, body, it never buddy, it never been seen, ub huh.

JAL: This work song and others properly accredited were sung by a quartet at— Bellwood Prison Camp at Atlanta, Georgia, by a quartet composed of Jesse Wadley, leader; Jhrz Wadley, Will Jones, and Felix Davenport, through the courtesy of Captain Tyree, captain of this camp, for the Library of Congress in Washington.


Notes (David Evans, PhD):

This appears to be another styulized version of a work song, including a representation of the grunts of the workers. This balladlike tale of horror is commonly known under the title of "In the Pines" and is found throughout the East Coast states and Appalachian region in both black and white traditionas as a work song, banjo tune, and guitar-accompanied song. Two Atlanta bluesmen recorded guitar-accompanied versions - Charlie Lincoln in 1927 ("Chain Gang Trouble," Columbia 14272-D) and Peg Leg Howell in 1929 ("Rolling Mill Blues," Columbia 14438-D).
In her dissertation Judith McCulloh studied 157 versions of this song, most of them collected from white informants and the earliest from 1917. She believes, hewever, that it may have been created in Georgia in the 1870s. "Joe Brown's coal mine," mentioned in the first stanza of this version, probably refers to mines operated at that time in Dade County in the extreme northwestern part of the state by Joseph Emerson Brown, who had served as Georgia's governor during the Confederacy. Whether the song began as a sea ballad or work song, among blacks or whites, is impossible to tell. It displays entreme variation in text and tune from one version to another, and many versions may be composites drawn from several sources. There can be little doubt, however, that it was spread by miners, loggers, railroad workers, hoboes, prisoners, and itinersnt musicians.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: GUEST,Jonathan Hewlett
Date: 25 Mar 09 - 07:14 PM

Thank you Joe Offer. That Really helps me a lot.
Keep the Peace. Bye.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Mar 19 - 09:24 AM

A really nice version here:


Tenneva Ramblers-The Longest Train I Ever Saw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jun 21 - 07:42 PM

Joe - thank you so much. I have wanted to sing this a long time. You made it possible

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Longest Train
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Feb 24 - 06:39 PM

refresh