|
Subject: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: catspaw49 Date: 05 Feb 01 - 10:31 PM Yeah, I like them too and as the son of an engineer, I've alwyas had a special attachment to some of them. Here's the deal. Back home in Dennison is a depot made famous as "Dreamsville" during WWII because of the free canteen that served almost 20% of the soldiers travelling by rail during that time. Its now wonderfully restored and has excursion train services through the valley, some by steam. If you are ever in the area, stop by in Dennison, Ohio. The director there asked me for a "good list of railroad songs" .... say 20 or so. So I sat down and wrote back a list with links to words, etc. Then I got to thinking about all the conversations we've had here and also included that I'd "check with some knowledgable friends." You don't need to post a long list of songs and where I can find them, but I would like your top 3,4, 6, whatever. Pick out the ones you really like best, railroad related. I mean, I love "East Texas Red" and its sorta' railroad related. So pick out your favorites and post them (link lyrics if you like).....don't go to a lot of trouble, but I think it would eventually add to an intriguing list. Thanks group....in advance!!! Spaw |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST Date: 05 Feb 01 - 10:45 PM Why don't you get Norm Cohen's compendium, 'The Long Steel Rail'. I think it was recently reprinted. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: catspaw49 Date: 05 Feb 01 - 10:50 PM Yes it was and I know Sandy got a copy....I think Joe may have too. But I'm not looking for that, great as I know it is (and its high on my "Want" list). Just what 2 or 3 do YOU like best. Spaw |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Frank of Toledo Date: 05 Feb 01 - 10:54 PM WABASH CANNONBALL ENGINE 143(FFV) RUN KATE SHELLY RUN |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: mkebenn Date: 05 Feb 01 - 10:58 PM My grandfather used to sing me CASEY JONES when I was a kid, still love it. Then CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, then Lightfoot's STEEL RAIL BLUES.. Mike |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Mrrzy Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:00 PM Jay Gould's Daughter. Which is the one that was a dark stormy night, not a star was in sight, and the north wind come howling down the line? Shel Silverstein's "it got there on time and it did not crash" - also those lovely ones I think Cisco Houston does, Railroad Bill, Hobo Bill, the gambler? The And I caught me the end of an old freight train and I never did come back guy? Clickety-clack. Whoo woo, peanut butter. I love train songs! |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: ddw Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:03 PM Bukka White's "SPECIAL STREAMLINE" and "PANAMA LIMITED" are sorta about trains. Mississippi John Hurt's "SLIDIN' DELTA" Obvious oldies — WRECK OF THE OLD 97, ENGINE 143 (FFV), CASEY JONES. DOWNBOUND TRAIN Big Bill Broonzy's "THIS TRAIN" ALL AROUND THE WATER TANK Sorry, 'Spaw — I get carried away.... david |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: ddw Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:05 PM Forgot to mention the old Kingston Trio nugget "FAST FREIGHT" david |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Cap't Bob Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:20 PM Norman Blakes "RANDALL COLLINS" CAP'T BOB |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Deckman Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:43 PM "a dark and stormy night, not a star was in sight" That's the "Wreck of Number Nine". Good grief ... I was there when the wreck happened. CHEERS, Bob Nelson |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: mousethief Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:51 PM City of New Orleans. Eliz. Cotton's Freight Train. Robert Johnson's All My Love's in Vain. Mississippi John Hurt's Talking Casey Jones Blues. -alex |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Les B Date: 06 Feb 01 - 12:31 AM "Life is Like a Mountain Railway" "Railroadin' on the Great Divide" "Milwaukee Blues" (Charlie Poole) |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Sourdough Date: 06 Feb 01 - 12:37 AM I'd add "Hellbound Train", "Georgia Mail", and "The D'Autemont Brothers". Sourdough
|
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: ddw Date: 06 Feb 01 - 12:38 AM How 'bout "Two Ten Train" — not strictly folk, but a fine song. david |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Spud Murphy Date: 06 Feb 01 - 12:47 AM There was one my dad used to get a lot of requests for many years ago about a child playin on the railroad tracks and the fireeman (I guess he was also a cowboy) took a lariat and crawled out on the runnin board and roped a switch (or somethin) and dallied to the stack and derailed the train. The engineer and fireman both were killed in the wreck but 'THEY SAVED THAT DARLIN CHILD!!!' Don't remember the name of the song, but I wish I did. I guess I forgot it. Spud |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 06 Feb 01 - 05:15 AM Well, 'Spaw, seems like most of my repertoire and folk/skiffle record collection is train-related. I'm sure most of these have been mentioned:Freight Train;Wreck of the old 97; Rock Island Line; Wabash Cannonball;Casey Jones;Workin' on the Railroad;John Henry; Take this hammer;Last train to San Fernando;Streamline Train; 6.5 special;Choo Choo Ch'boogie and lots that mention trains:Worried Man Blues;Weeping Willow Blues;Lost John;Alabamy Bound;Buddy can you spare a dime. This from work and away from aids to memory. Long Steel Rail is a great book which Herself bought me after I saw it recommended by Joe and others. RtS (chug chug Whooo Whooo - never mastered Honky Tonk Train Blues on the kazoo!) |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Joe Offer Date: 06 Feb 01 - 05:21 AM Don't miss the Train songs thread we had a while back. Stewie's been working on a collection of train songs, and he's posted lots of them here. -Joe Offer- |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: bob schwarer Date: 06 Feb 01 - 06:21 AM Slow Train Through Georgia Green Light on the Southern Wreck of the FFV I'll think of some more when I wake up. Bob S. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: bob schwarer Date: 06 Feb 01 - 06:52 AM First cup of coffee: The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore Bob S. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: bob schwarer Date: 06 Feb 01 - 06:55 AM Again. Not too trainy, but "Midnight Special" Also, "Orange Blossom Special" "Last Train From Poor Valley" Bob S. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Brian Hoskin Date: 06 Feb 01 - 07:36 AM All of the above and Arlo's "Last Train to Glory", and the late great Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready", with which he continues the long use of railroad imagery to articulate social messages. Brian |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: bigchuck Date: 06 Feb 01 - 07:43 AM Songs by Utah Phillips; Starlight on the Rails, Paddy Welcome Back, Old Buddy, Goodnight, Queen of the Rails, No Round TRip Ticket, Boomer Bill. Also Roy Acuff's Streamline Cannonball. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C Date: 06 Feb 01 - 08:27 AM Spud Murphy, The song you are thinking of is the "Cowboy Engineer" which I am sure is in the Forum. I have a fondness for "Bill Brogan's Goat" , "The Train to Morrow" and "The Dummy Line" but I also love the classics. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Walter Corey Date: 06 Feb 01 - 08:29 AM "Are You Right There, Michael" by Percy French is a great railroad song (click here) |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C Date: 06 Feb 01 - 08:29 AM How about "Cowboy Fireman". Sorry |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: catspaw49 Date: 06 Feb 01 - 08:40 AM Just great friends!!! From the first post of Toledo Frank, I've been going, "OH YEA!!! There's a winner!" in almost every posting. Great stuff. JOE....I had that thread and read it before.....I was just hoping for (and getting) a different take/slightly different angle.....but thanks. I probably should have referenced it myself in the first post, but somehow that always cuts the creative thought a bit, ya' know? Spaw |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: SINSULL Date: 06 Feb 01 - 10:05 AM Lightenin'Express Hank William's "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow" |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Rex Date: 06 Feb 01 - 12:04 PM Yeah, the Wreck of the Number Nine. Mountain Railway too. If you haven't seen it, check out "Scalded to Death by the Steam". Another fine collection of railroad songs and their history. I didn't see it listed above but another favorite is Way Out There done very well by the Sons of the Pioneers. Used to work for the railroad myself. Rex |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: annamill Date: 06 Feb 01 - 12:37 PM I went to the forum to find "Cowboy Fireman" and I can't get in. Boo! Great thread. Love, annamill |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Cap't Bob Date: 06 Feb 01 - 12:51 PM "Freight Train Blues" ~ my dad used to sing it to me. Cap't Bob |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Art Thieme Date: 06 Feb 01 - 04:05 PM Bruce Phillips' "Phoebe Snow" is one of the very best. Hank Williams' "The Old Log Train" is a relatively unknown favorite of mine. "The Hobo's Last Ride" from Buell Kazee in the 1920s---then Hank Snow in the 1950s (with a different tune) and then me too (Folk Legacy). Art Thieme
|
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Metchosin Date: 06 Feb 01 - 04:48 PM Most of my favourites have been mentioned except for The Hobo's Grand Convention as played and sung by my grandfather, a variant of that in the DT, particularly the chorus:
Every 'bo and restless mover I don't think it has ever appeared on a recording, but I have been told that there is an upcoming CD of hobo songs on which our version will appear, just don't know when. I know the tune but I don't know yet how to get it to the DT short of singing it. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: SINSULL Date: 06 Feb 01 - 05:52 PM Does anyone know the lyrics to "The Train that Never Returned Again"? I had a 78 recording of it as a child but it is long gone. The reverse side was "There's a Big Rock In The Road" or "Poor Folk". Can't remember. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 06 Feb 01 - 08:01 PM Two come to mind immediately: "Last Train to Nuremburg", which was sung and maybe written by Pete Seeger. A song (forget the title now) sung and played by Bascomb Lamar Lunsford which included the verse: If necessary I could dig this song out and supply the whole text. Dave Oesterreich |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Jim Dixon Date: 06 Feb 01 - 08:13 PM To find lots more songs, plug either "train" or "rail" into the Filter box, and set Age to "3 years" and click the Refresh button. But if you just want to know my personal favorites, I'd vote for One More Ride, Glendale Train. I also like "Orange Blossom Special," as sung by Johnny Cash. A lot of people don't even know it has words. It's in DT. By the way, I like trains, too, although my dad was only a janitor in the headquarters building of the Missouri Pacific Railroad in St. Louis. Don't laugh: It kept him out of WW2 because he worked in an "essential industry." Not only did we get cheap tickets, but he was able to bring home lots of souvenirs. Just the other day, after visiting my mother's house, I brought home a copy of "The Uniform Code of Operating Rules." (Hope I got the title right.) I worked in an office there myself four summers in a row while I was a college student. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Rob Date: 06 Feb 01 - 11:49 PM The Monkey and the Engineer, Railroad Bill, and Last Train to Glory Those are some of my personal favorites... Rob |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: catspaw49 Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:23 AM Thanks to you all!!! I had the other threads such as Jim suggested, even participated in some, but this added a few new voices and brought out quite a few not mentioned which are real fine songs. Again.....Thanks!! Spaw |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Inukshuk Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:37 AM Just too many damned excellent train songs. I remember the throb and the smell of the steam engines. Nearly got hit by one once. I remember the last one that came down the track by our house. It was in the late fifties. My all time favourite train song has to be "Streamlined Cannonball." Most everyone else prefers the four/four Doc Watson version, but I cling to the original Roy Acuff waltz. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:48 AM Did anyone mention "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" by Jimmie Rodgers or "Nine Hundred Miles" or "The Twelve Sixty-Two" or "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" or "The Rock Island Line" or--aack--I can't think of the name of it: Hang Snow's great song to about the same tune as "Brown's Ferry Blues"--or "Lost John"? --seed |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:51 AM oops, that's Hank Snow. --seed |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: SINSULL Date: 07 Feb 01 - 10:23 AM OK I'll say it "The Last Train to Clarksville" The Baggage Coach Ahead |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Keith A at work Date: 07 Feb 01 - 10:58 AM Just in case you would like an English song for variety, The Ballad of John Axon By Ewan McColl is a good song telling a true story. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Wendy Date: 07 Feb 01 - 11:15 AM DaveO's lyrics above are from I WISH I WAS A MOLE IN THE GROUND. One of my favorites. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,jaze Date: 07 Feb 01 - 05:26 PM Glendale Train-New Riders Waiting For A Train-Eric Andersen City Of New Orleans-Steve Goodman Mountain Railway-Johnny Cash/Nitty Grtitty Dirt Band
|
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Arkie Date: 07 Feb 01 - 05:38 PM Carson Robison's "Runaway Train" and Hank Snow's "Golden Rocket". |
|
Subject: Lyr Add: WAITING FOR A TRAIN (Jimmie Rodgers) From: GUEST,DrWord Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:11 PM WAITIN' FOR A TRAIN
All around the water tank, waitin' for a train
He put me off in Texas, a state I dearly love I just looked in the DigiTrad ... don't appear to be there. I LOVE this song. Without the yodeling, I'll do it when I'm busking and some 70/80-year-olds remember it! |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:19 PM Hey ddw david sorry i didn't read through all forty-some replies before I posted :( I searched the Trad under the title you use, i.e., the first line, All around the water tank ... but it's not there. If you could edit my off-the-top-of-my-head memory of it, it should be Lyric Add however you 'catters do that. somebody please put the credit and year on it 2 Thanx 'catters [I *love* this place!] |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Sorcha Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:33 PM Wreck of the Old '97 Freight Train, freight train, (goin down the line)title? Rock Island Line Folosm Prison Blues (and if this train was mine, I'd move on a little farther down the line) Raised By the Railroad Line, by Paul Craft (put that penny on the rail that the wheel mashed flat) |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: GUEST,Mike Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:44 PM Does anyone remember a song that includes: "Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, the wheels are saying to the railroad track, 'Once you go you can't come back.'...?" I've been singing part of that song to my train-crazy three-year-old and I would like to have a copy or at least all of the lyrics. Thanks. |
|
Subject: RE: RAILROAD SONG BUFFS--Check Here Please From: Sorcha Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:46 PM spaw, you might want to look at this site, lyrics included.. Lyrics for Raised by the Railroad Line are there........I didn't realized that Tenesse Ernie did it too, the only version I know was recorded by Chris LeDoux. |
| Share Thread: |
