Origins: Guysborough Train

Subject: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: Raggytash
Date: 14 Apr 17 - 04:30 AM

I am surprised that this Stan Rogers song hasn't been mentioned on Mudcat, the tune is great but I'm not at all sure what the lyrics mean.

Any ideas?

Subject: RE: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 17 - 12:49 PM

Guysborough is a county in northern Nova Scotia Canada, it a pretty bleak place in winter but lovely in summer. I think Stan may be lamenting the fact that no one can to Guysborough by train any more, or anywhere else in Nova Scotia for that Matter. The singer comes from Gusborough,it has made him the man he is, but for a number of reasons he can't go back. Sort of the theme of never being able to step into the same river twice. Just my take on it.

Subject: RE: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: Raggytash
Date: 14 Apr 17 - 02:10 PM

Thank you

Subject: RE: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 15 Apr 17 - 11:06 AM

https://youtu.be/oJiLADHFZd4 

Posts from 'GUEST            ' I usually try to skip over these days but, this time, thanks.

! It is pretty remote
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipality_of_the_District_of_Guysborough

Guysborough, NS, Canada  

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Steve, I know, probably nothing new presented there.

Subject: RE: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Apr 17 - 02:16 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Oct 18 - 09:58 PM

In an interview Stan stayed they the Guysborough train was a train to nowhere and was a representation of, as he said “liberal”promises not kept https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/stan-rogers-shows-off-his-first-guitar

Subject: ADD: Guysborough Train (Stan Rogers)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Oct 18 - 12:36 AM

I found the lyrics at http://stanrogers.net/the-music/song-archive/guysborough-train/. The transcription is sloppy, but it's hard to make out all the words on the recording. Can anybody give better lyrics?

GUYSBOROUGH TRAIN
(Stan Rogers)

Now there’s no train to Guysborough
Or so the man said
So it might be a good place to be
So I sit in this station
And I count up (out?) my change
And I wait for the Guysborough train

Now I’ve sat in your kitchens
And talked about walls
And I’ve sung about your withering pain
Shattered your temples
And I’ve brought on your fall
Now I wait for the Guysborough train

CHORUS
And I ride for all time, on the Guysborough line
And I grow by the North Country rain
And the North Shore’s begun
The man I’ve become
In rags, on the Guysborough train

No train to Guysborough
Now ain’t that a shame
Though I know there will be one in time
And the house that’s alone
It soon will be gone
Razed for the Guysborough line

People are (they're?) simple
Like the rain clouds sweet
Both grown by that North Country rain
The Interval is clear
Will it soon disappear
Under the Guysborough train

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXYvxTC1bPw

Subject: RE: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: GUEST,Local
Date: 12 Oct 18 - 12:08 PM

I grew up in guysborough NS, and have had the pleasure of performing at, and attending the Stan Rodgers folk festival. From my understanding, the song is about the rail system that was put in place but a decision was made st the time by either the government or rail company to halt operations in the area, hence there’s no train to guysborough. Concrete pillars are dotted throughout the county where rail bridges were to be built, but it never happened. People hoped that new prosperity would come to the region with a rail line, so I’d say a lot of locals were disappointed that the rail project was ended prematurely. If you walk the section of the Trans Canada trail in guysborough, you end up walking kilometre after kilometre on what would have been the rail line.

Subject: RE: Origins: Guysborough Train
From: GUEST,Robert Dawson
Date: 18 May 23 - 10:13 AM

"Liberal promises not kept"... Stan was technically correct: it was a Liberal promise, and it was not kept: but the project was abandoned, half-completed, by R.B.Bennett's incoming Conservative government. (A precursor of the Avro Arrow?)

Partway along (West 62.1344, North 45.3550) is one of the "Sons of Martha Cairns" erected by Harry McLean (https://churcher.crcml.org/Articles/Article2015_02.html) (Not off topic! The Kipling poem quoted there (in extenso) has been set as a folksong by Leslie Fish and probably others.)