'Long Steel Rail' (railroad songbook reissued)

Subject: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 01:36 AM

For those who may be interested, and unaware of this, the long overdue second edition of Norm Cohen's classic 'Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong' is to be published in paperback by the University of Illinois Press and available in April. Amazon will have it. Great news for people like myself who have been unsuccessfully attempting to track down a copy of the original edition.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 01:48 AM

Good news Stewie. Your thread title brings back some memories of some good train songs by Canadian Gordon Lightfoot...Steel Rail Blues, and Railroad Trilogy.

Rick

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 03:58 AM

Sandy Paton and I are in line waiting for it, too, Stewie. Whoever finds it first, please refresh this thread and let us know.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 05:15 PM

Yahooooo!! Ain't it about time, too.

Sandy

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Willie-O
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 05:48 PM

Hey Rick. Those are good Lightfoot songs but got me thinkin...aren't there any _old_ classic Canadian railroad songs? Older than the 60's, I mean. All I can think of is "Blue Canadian Rockies" and that's like, Wilf Carter. There are a bunch of good contemporary ones -- but what was going on in the late 1800's when the railroad was the biggest deal going?

Willie-O

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Crowhugger
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 06:03 PM

Willie-O, I think we were too busy killing Chinese in the building of the RRs to have time to write songs. Not a happy chapter in our history, maybe no accident that there aren't a lot of old songs "celebrating" railroads in this country. There might be some in Mandarin or Cantonese along the lines of "Blantyre Explosion."

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Chocolate Pi
Date: 10 Mar 00 - 08:10 PM

perhaps not useful, but Crowhugger's post triggered vague memories of books by Laurence Yep in sixth-grade reading classes; he's written several excellent children's/young adult books, mostly from the point of view of the children of Chinese immigrants working in the San Francisco laundries or on the railroads. There's one book where the narrator is working on the railroad with his father, and although I can't remember the title at all, I clearly remember several vivid scenes from it.

Chocolate Pi (who is lucky that this post didn't end up being about neuronal gap junctions, since she's been studying all afternoon and literally has brains on the brain)

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: tar_heel
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 11:22 AM

great to hear.been putting together a collection of railroad songs,myself..........a big railroad buff,and stamp collector on that subject. anyone want to share duplicate railroad stamps with me,just ""whistle"....but, the book will be great!!!

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Pablo
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 12:15 PM

Norman Blake recently recorded "The Founding of the Old C.P.R." re: Canadian railroad songs.

I think it promotes the great hotels along the way, as well as the RR itself. Worth a listen. Shall I try to post the lyrics?

Pablo

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 12:19 PM

I'm sittin' here looking at my hard cover edition of the book as we speak. It's fine volume with it's bright red dust jacket. Glad to hear it's to see the light of day again.

For all interested in railroad songs and lore---especially dramatic photos---check out "SCALDED TO DEATH BY THE STEAM" by Katie Letcher Lyle (Algonquin Books Of Chapel Hill-1991)----a wonderful book of songs about the big wrecks.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 12:54 PM

Well Willie, I vaguely know of one called "The P.G.E." from the west coast. There aren't many train songs in Canadian folklore. Hank Snow's Canadian and he wrote "I'm Movin' On". Oops, "Canadian Pacific" by Ray Griff. I'll be immodest and mention "City Boy's Dream" from my album "This One's The Dreamer" on Borealis.

Rick

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Dale Rose
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 01:04 PM

Pablo, we can never have enough train songs. Just start a new thread and post away!

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: raredance
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 04:06 PM

Does anyone know if this is a paperback reprint of the original book or if there has been revised and expanded with a lot of new information?

rich r

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 08:16 PM

Pablo please post those lyrics. I'm quite curious...sounds more like advertising than folk music. (But heh if its good enough for Norman Blake...)

Thanks for the suggestions. It's interesting--us modern songwriters have all written train songs, just can't let go of the imagery...but there seems to be nothing in the trad repertoire that has the universality of "John Henry" or "I've Been Working On The Railroad", or even a sturdy Irish immigrant ballad like "Pat Works On The Railway." (and there were plenty of Irish out there swingin hammers on the CPR and CNR lines.)

Fillime-ori-ori-ay. Go figure.

W-O

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 11:05 PM

Shel Silverstein's great anti-trainwreck song was a classic. Just one verse :

I'll sing you the story of old number 9,
She left Boston just on time,
It was the 8th of December she made her desperate dash,
Got there on time and she did not crash.

Art

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Pablo
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 11:49 PM

Att'n Willie-O and Dan Rose:
The Founding of the Famous C.P.R. (click) is now posted as a new thread. Thank you for provoking me--I have never posted a lyric before tonight.

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 10:21 PM

Is "Long Steel Rail" out yet? Has anybody seen it in a store?
-Joe, anxious-

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 09:10 AM

Like rich r, I'd be interested to know if this is a reprint or a revised edition. Either way it's good news.

Brian

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 09:26 AM

UK Amazon bookshop lists it as "forthcoming: July 2000", may be earlier your side of the pond,Joe & Co., itlooks good value at 28 pounds sterling for 744 pages
RtS ("The Rock Island line is the line to ride")

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 09:30 AM

I just checked Amazon; they don't have it as yet (the y just say available 'April 2000').

It is in paperback ISBN 0252068815.

It was $32 and something (I knew I should have written it down!) plus shipping.

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 09:32 AM

Roger, it looks like you'd get it cheaper and earlier from the States.

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 09:55 AM

Too true, Brian!
RtS

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 08:24 PM

Click here to see the blurb from the University of Illinois Press about the second edition (not a reprint, I guess) of the book. I tried to order the book just now at the U of I Website, but they say it is not yet in print.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 09:21 PM

Darn! I've deleted the note I got from Norm Cohen last week, but memory tells me he was able to revise the preface, or intro, but the basic text was kept intact. Now I can't remember whether or not he added any new song material. Sorry. I'll write and ask him. More later.

Sandy

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: raredance
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 11:34 PM

The University of Illiinois site says that it contains 85 songs, which is exactly the number in the original, so I am guessing that any changes are relatively minor.

rich r

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 05:52 PM

Thanks, rich r. Saves me the embarrassment of writing "Hi! I forgot what you told me last week! Tell me again!"

Sandy (another senior moment?)

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Apr 00 - 04:24 PM

So, has anybody seen the new book yet? Is it out?
The last time I waited for a book to come out, it came six months late.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Stewie
Date: 07 May 00 - 08:17 PM

According to Amazon.com, the second edition is available now and ships within 24 hours.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 May 00 - 02:17 AM

My copy arrived today. It's 710 pages, chock-full of songs and background information. It's an amazing piece of work.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 09:16 AM

Following your enthusiasm , gents, I put this on my "wants" list and my everloving came up trumps and presented me with a copy for a recent birthday. As a lot of my repertoire seems to be train songs of one sort or another (though I'm not a train buff),I will have many happy hours with it , I'm sure.
Thanks to all for drawing it to my attention.
RtS

Subject: RE: 'Long Steel Rail'
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 01:35 PM

A lovely book. I have had my copy for a month now; I've read it cover-to-cover and have loaned it out to a buddy who likes old songs too.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

Alex
O..O
=o=