Lyr Req: Train 45 (from Grayson & Whitter)

Subject: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 08:44 AM

Does anyone have the Grayson Whitter lyrics to Train 45 recorded in 1927? There's a version that can be found in Ceolas but it doesn't seem to be complete.

Did Fiddlin' John Carson record Train 45 or Ruben/Reuben's Train?

Anyone have lyrics to Emry Arthur's, "Reuben Oh Reuben" (Paramount 3295, c. 1931.

I have the 1909 lyrics from JOAFL. Are there any earlier lyrics? Can we find any?

Thanks,

Richie

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 09:54 AM

John Carson recorded Rueben under the title "900 Miles Away From Home". I have two different versions in my CD wallet from cassettes purchased from The Music Barn on their Radio Memories series. I also have what is called a "Condensed Version" of the Grayson Whittier version, likewise from The Music Barn on a cassette called Railroad Songs And Ballads.

Subject: Lyr Add: TRAIN 45 (from Grayson & Whitter)
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 06:59 PM

Here are the lyrics to Grayson and Whittier's "Train Forty-Five (Condensed)" as transcribed from Railroad Songs And Ballads, The Music Barn catalogue number RR92 (the track lasts 1:44):

(Spoken: Train 45 leaving terminal station, Atlanta, Georg-ie)

Oh you oughta been uptown
And see that train come down
Heared the whistle blowin a hundred miles

(Spoken: Whee-hoo. Lord Lord.)

Well I think I hear that train
Comin round the bend
Blowin like she'd never blow again

(Spoken: Train 45. Whee-hoo.)

Oh I'm goin up the track
Bring my little woman back
I'm tired of living this a-way

(Spoken: I'm a-goin after her, Henry. Train 45. Whee-hoo. Tell em, Henry, tell em.)


Richie, check your PMs.

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 08:19 PM

Bob,

Thanks. I thought Train 45 (1927) was based on Nine Hundred Miles. I'll try to get Carson's version and post the lyrics.

Does anyone think Ruby (Are you Mad?) is a mis-hearing of Ruben. Is this Cousin Emmy's song or did Copusin Emmy just do a version copied by others?

How does the song, "The Graveyard" sometimes called "Graveyard Blues" (altho there is a different blues song by the same title) fit into the picture?

Richie

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 09:25 PM

Having compared the two Radio Memories versions of Carson's 900 Miles, I think they are the same as the version posted above and identical with one another, except that they were dubbed from different 78s.

The way I hear the words:

line 3: If that don't pay my little woman's fine
line 5, 13, 21: You can count the days I'm gone on the train that I left on
line 9: I used to have a woman she was walk and talk with me
line 10: Now she's a-settin on some other rounder's knee
line 23: If that train runs right she'll see John tomorrow night

When my banjo teacher showed me how to play "Rueben's Train" she said, "There, now you can play 'Ruby Are You Mad At Your Man' too."

Subject: Lyr Add: REUBEN OH REUBEN (from Emry Arthur)
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 09:30 PM

Thanks Bob for the corrections. Here's another early version by Emry Arthur in 1930. I think the words are right.


LYR ADD: Reuben Oh Reuben
Emry Arthur 1930

Guitar Intro

Reub-a-Rueb, oh Reub, it's Reub-a-Rueb, oh Reub,
Reuben where you been so long.

I've been to the east, I've been to the west
I've been all around this ol' world.

I've been to the river and I've been baptized
I'm ready for my hole in the ground.

(Guitar break)

Oh Reuben had a wreck, he broke his foreman's neck
He can't get no letter from his home.

(Guitar break)

Reub-a-Rueb, oh Reub, it's Reub-a-Rueb, oh Reub,
Reuben where you been so long.

I've been to the east, I've been to the west
I've been all around this ol' world.

I've been to the river and I've been baptized
I'm ready for my hole in the ground.

(Guitar break)

Honey if you just say so I'll railroad no more
I'll side track my engine and come home.

The longest day, I've ever seen,
Was the day that I left home.

My mama told me, and my papa too
That I must never roam.

---Richie

Subject: Lyr Add: I'M NINE HUNDRED MILES FROM HOME (Carson)
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 09:40 PM

Corrected version

I'M NINE HUNDRED MILES FROM HOME
As recorded by Fiddlin' John Carson, OKeh 40196, Aug. 27, 1924, Atlanta Ga.

Fiddle

Lord, I'll pawn you my watch and I'll pawn you chain,
Pawn you, my gold diamond ring.
If that don't pay my little woman's fine,
Pawn you my wagon and my team.

You can count the days I'm gone on the train that I left on.
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
If that train runs right I'll be home tomorrow night.
Lord, I'm nine hundred miles from my home.

Fiddle

I used to have a woman; she would walk and talk with me.
Now she's just setting on some other rounder's knee.
She's done told him what she won't tell me,
And I hate to hear that lonesome whistle blow.

You can count the days I'm gone on the train that I left on.
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
If that train runs right I'll be home tomorrow night.
Lord, I'm nine hundred miles from my home.

Fiddle

I went down to the depot, Lord, not many days ago,
Got on that train and the train went a-flyin'.
I looked back behind and my baby was a-cryin',
And he's gone and left me alone.

You can count the days I'm gone on the train that I left on.
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
If that train runs right, she'll see John tomorrow night.
Lord, I'm nine hundred miles away from my home.

Subject: Lyr Add: GRAVEYARD BLUES (from Ollie Gilbert)
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 10:58 PM

Here's an example of Graveyard Blues:

GRAVEYARD BLUES Ollie Gilbert
As sung by Ollie Gilbert, Mountain View, Arkansas on April 9, 1970 Max Hunter Collection

Verse 1
Well, I went to the graveyard to look down on her face
Went to the graveyard, looked down on her face
Said, I'm sorry, woman, but I jest can't take your place.
A woman made a fool outa me.

Verse 2
Where was you, woman, when the train left the shed?
Where was you, woman, when the train left the shed?
I was standing in my backroom door wishing to God I was dead.
A woman made a fool outa me.

Verse 3
Oh, I hate to see that evenin' sun go down.
Hate to see that evenin' sun go down.
I've got nobody and I'm so lone, lonesome man.
Woman made a fool outa me.

Verse 4
Come here, woman, an' see what you have done.
Come here, woman. See what you have done.
You caused me to love you, an' now, you're left an' gone.
Woman made a fool outa me.

Verse 5
Well, take me to the graveyard 'n' throw sod over me.
Take me to the graveyard. Throw sod over me.
I want to tell the whole wide world how you mistreated me.
A woman made a fool outa me.

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: Goose Gander
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 12:06 AM

Graveyard Blues As sung by Ollie Gilbert, Mountain View, Arkansas on April 9, 1970

From the Max Hunter collection.

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 07:01 AM

Graveyard Blues by Ollie Gilbert originated in 1923 as Ida Cox's Graveyard Dream Blues (Paramount 12044). Graveyard Blues was also in the repertoire of other mountain musicians, including Roscoe Holcombe (Folkways FA2363) and Hobart Smith (Rounder CD 1702).

Now compare this with the chorus of Graveyard Blues by John Jackson:

I'm gonna start a graveyard of my own
If that man don't leave my gal alone.
My razor's got a rusty blade.
Gonna lay that man right in the shade.
I'm gonna start a graveyard of my own.

This is the version that related to Reuben's Train/Reuben songs.

Richie

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 07:46 AM

John Jackson's Graveyard Blues seems to derive from Charlie Poole's version of "Coon From Tennessee" as given in this thread. What's the connection to Reuben's Train?

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 09:59 AM

And Charlie Poole's "Coon From Tennessee" may well be a cover of the Georgia Crackers' version which was recorded a few months earlier in 1927 than Poole's.

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 02:16 PM

Norn Cohen, "Long Steel Rail," devotes a chapter to "Reuben's Train/Train 45/900 Miles," pp. 503-518, including words and partial score for Emry Arthur, "Reuben, Oh, Reuben," p. 503.
The only differences from your transcription are-
...he broke his fireman's neck
Reube is the spelling used.

Cohen quotes in full Riley Puckett's "Nine Hundred Miles from Home," with partial score.

Cohen remarks on the opening of Grayson and Whitter's Train 45, with the verse:
"Oh, you oughta been uptown, an' seen that train come down,
A-heard the whistle blow a hundred miles"
"When the verses are written in this fashion, each line ends on the tonic. Beside the tonic, the melody uses primarily the third, fourth and fifth degrees of the scale. In contrast, the "900 Miles" tune is twice as long. The first line is musically similar to "Reuben's Train" but the second line moves higher up the scale, to end on the dominant. The third and fourth lines are unlike "Reuben's Train."
At the end of the chapter, Cohen is uncertain whether, originally, there were two texts/tunes (contrasting Emry and Puckett as examples).

The first occurrence of the song(s) seems to be a fragment from two South Carolina Blacks, heard in 1905 by Robert Duncan Bass.

Cohen doesn't discuss the "Graveyard Blues" much beyond quoting a bit of Wade Mainer, "Old Ruben," 1941, which has the 'graveyard of my own' verse.

Perrow collected a verse in 1907 from East Tennessee whites-

3. WHEN I'M DEAD

When I'm dead, dead en' gone,
You ken hyer the train I'm on,
You ken hyer the whistle blow a thousand miles.
If I die a railroad man,
Jes' bury me in the san',
Where I ken hyer ole Six Hundred roll in the mornin'.
E. C. Perrow, Songs and Rhymes of the South, Jour. American Folklore, vol. 26, 1913.

FO' HUNDRED MILES FUM HOME
South Carolina, Negroes, MS of H. M. Bryan, 1909

The rain it rained, the wind it blew,
The hail it hailed, and the snow it snew;
And I wuz fo' hundred miles away fum home.
The tracks wuz filled with snow,
When I heard the station blow:
And I wuz fo' hundred miles away fum home.
We just crossed Deadman's Track
When No. 14 hit our back;
And I wuz ... etc.
(Unfortunately, this is all that is reported).
Perrow, same issue.

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 10:00 PM

Thanks Q for the post.

Bob,

It seems that the chorus of "I'm Goin' to Live Anyhow Till I Die" was adapted by Poole and others in the region.

Poole's popular version was used by others as lyrics for the Rueben Songs. Somewhere along the line cemetary changed to graveyard.

I'm gonna run me a cemetery of my own,
You don't let my gal there alone,
Gonna buy me a razor, scrape the blade,
Gonna lay some son-of-a-gun in the shade,
For I'm gonna live in the highways 'til I die.

Richie

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 22 Nov 06 - 08:03 AM

I haven't heard any Reuben with the "graveyard of my own" words.
I see by the Coon From Tennessee thread I linked to above (Nov 21, 7:46am) that the "graveyard of my own" stuff doesn't occur in the original 1891 lyrics of "I'm Going To Live Anyhow Until I Die", which raises the question of where did the Georgia Crackers and/or Charlie Poole get the verse from? From some version of "Reuben's Train" perhaps?

Subject: RE: lyrics and info: Train 45
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Nov 06 - 08:35 AM

Bob,

This is the standard floating verse found in most Reuben songs:

I got myself a blade, laid ol' Reuben in the shade
I'm startin' me a graveyard of my own
Oh me, oh my, I'm startin' me a graveyard of my own

It certainly could have floated to "Coon From Tennessee" but probably came from "Coon in Tenn." The line "You don't let my gal there alone," is missing which takes the meaning out of the verse.

There are other floating verses "Been to the East" found in Reuben.

Richie