The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #48724   Message #3269856
Posted By: GUEST,Don Wise
07-Dec-11 - 11:12 AM
Thread Name: Discussion: Love Affair With Trains
Subject: RE: Discussion: Love Affair With Trains
The (West)german rock singer Udo Lindenberg was so pissed off about the then GDR Government refusing him permission to tour in the GDR that he rewrote "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" as "Der Sonderzug nach Pankow". Pankow is the district of (East)Berlin where the GDR Government was located. This was not long before 'The Wall' started to collapse.

I've written a couple of songs that have trains or railways somewhere in the text: "Parcels Joe" based on a story I read concerning the marshalling yard and loco shed at Rowsley, Derbyshire...and "Rolling Wheels" which is vaguely american influenced-a sort of 'hear that whistle down in the valley below' song. I'm ttrying to get them out to a wider public...........

There is a swedish song called "Jag är födda i en stuga"(I was born in a cabin) which deals with a navvy's life building railways. Sweden also has some shanty/chain-gang like work songs from navvies and track gangs.