Robert Wuhl has a couple of funny HBO specials called "Assume the Position" that are about American History. In one of them he discusses hostory as pop culture and relates it to "The Liberty Valance Effect." In the movie, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" there is line that in many ways is quite true:

"When the Legend becomes Fact...Print the Legend."

This is generally the case with song. We need the hero or the great battle or the loss or the whatever to go a certain way so "liberties" are taken with the truth and when we go back and research it, we find that the L-V Effect has come into play. I dunno' what the right thing to do always is but I find some aspects of these things kinda' humorous.

In almost every rail disaster song we find the engineer has died "with his hand on the throttle and was scalded to death by the steam."   My Dad was an engineer and he found those lines ridiculous. What the hell are you going to do? Steer the thing off the track?   No, you put it in the hole, throw the air into Emergency, and if you're about to hit something......get the hell out!

In one old song we know the true story quite well and it was a whitewash all the way. The engineer did all he could and jumped. The fireman was trying to follow when the engine crashed and he was thrown against the boiler and died. The engineer survived the jump but struck his head on another rail and also died. So you can't say he stumbled off the cabin platform and hit his head on a rail so the song puts him back in the cab, hand on the throttle, etc...........


Spaw