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Lyr Req: Farmer-Labor Train (Woody Guthrie)

11 Mar 02 - 11:46 AM (#666980)
Subject: woody guthrie song with train sound
From: Spartacus

I heard a song on a Woody Guthrie CD a friend of mine burned for me. (it doesn't have the titles on it) There is a song I would love to learn that has Woody singing with a couple of other folks. (Cisco and Sonny maybe) and during the chorus they sing a "woooooowoowoooowooo" to emulate a train sound. Anyone know the title? have the words? anyone?

-spartacus

11 Mar 02 - 05:04 PM (#667204)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: Spartacus

trying this again... really want to know this song...

11 Mar 02 - 05:06 PM (#667207)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: GUEST

City Of New Orleans?

11 Mar 02 - 05:08 PM (#667210)
Subject: Lyr Add: CITY OF NEW ORLEANS (Steve Goodman)
From: GUEST

THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
(Steve Goodman)
As recorded by Steve Goodman on "Steve Goodman" (1971)

1. Ridin' on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central, Monday mornin' rail,
There are fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
They're all out on the south-bound odyssey,
And the train pulls out o' Kankakee,
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields,
Passin' towns that have no name,
And freight yards full of old black men,
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles.

Singin': Good mornin', America; how are you?
Sayin': Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
Yes, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans,
And I'll be gone five-hundred miles when day is done.

2. And I was dealin' cards with the old men in the club car,
And it's penny a point; there ain't no one keepin' score.
Won't you pass that paper bag that holds that bottle?
You can feel the wheels grumblin' through the floor.
And the sons of Pullman porters, the sons of engineers,
They ride their fathers' magic carpet made of steam;
And mothers with their babes asleep go rockin' to the gentle beat,.
The rhythm of the rails is all they dream.

Just a-singin': Good mornin', America; how are you?
Sayin': Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
I'll be gone five-hundred miles when day is done.

3. Night time on the City of New Orleans,
Changin' cars in Memphis, Tennessee,
It's halfway home; we'll be there by mornin',
Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' to the sea.
And all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream.
The old steel rail, it ain't heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again.
It's "Passengers Will Please Refrain."
This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues.

Just a-singin': Good night, America; how are you?
Sayin': Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
I'll be gone five-hundred miles when day is done.

Just a-singin': Good night, America; how are you?
Sayin': Don't you know me? I'm your native son.
Well, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans,
And I'll be gone a long, long time when day is done.

11 Mar 02 - 07:04 PM (#667292)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: Mr Red

If it was "This Train" ("Bound for Glory") he did not write it, he sang it a lot and he called his autobiography "Bound for Glory" which adds to the myth, but he was aware of the myth in his own lifetime. The song is in the Lomax book on Folksongs of America, try the Digitrad on the two titles
I have heard the woooooowoooo chorus used so it may be the one.

11 Mar 02 - 07:10 PM (#667299)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: Mark Ross

I wouldn't be CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, Steve Goodman wrot that in the '70s, Check with SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS as they have all the stuff Woody recorded(even some of the non-coommercial stuff). It could have been NEW LOST TRAIN BLUES that Woody recorded with Alan Lomax for the LofC. I seem to recall that Lomax committed what was then cardinal sin of injecting himself into the interview, instead of maintaining what was then considered to be a folklorists proper objectivity.

Mark Ross

12 Mar 02 - 07:53 AM (#667579)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: GUEST,Rex at work 'puter

Um, well no one's said it yet, but Pete Seeger has sung "Way Out There". A fine old piece written by Bob Nolan of the Sons of the Pioneers I think. I figure Woody knew it too. It has that kind of chorus. Oh, and it's in the DT.

Rex

12 Mar 02 - 08:13 AM (#667584)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: GUEST,Rex again

I should verify before I holler. It's not in the DT but is in the forum. Do a search there and a thread comes up that takes you to another thread and there it is.

12 Mar 02 - 11:42 AM (#667672)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train
From: greg stephens

Ive got a feeling he did "900 Miles" with Sonny Terry doing train effects.(might have been underalternative title Reuben's Train).

18 Mar 02 - 11:14 AM (#671299)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: Guessed

well it sounds like Woody was well trained
woo woo hoo hoo hoo (8^))

18 Mar 02 - 03:00 PM (#671430)
Subject: Lyr Add: FARMER-LABOR TRAIN (Woody Guthrie)
From: Spartacus

Just for the record, if anyone is interested, the song I was looking for was "FARMER-LABOR TRAIN"
Here are the lyrics:

From the high Canadian Rockies to the land of Mexico,
City and the country, wherever you may go,
Through the wild and windy weather, the sun and sleet and rain,
Comes a-whistlin' through the country this Farmer-Labor train.

Listen to the jingle and the rumble and the roar.
She's rollin' through New England to the West Pacific shore.
It's a long time we've been waitin'. Now she's been whistlin' 'round the bend.
Roll on into Congress on that Farmer-Labor train.

[TRAIN WHISTLE IMITATION]

There's lumberjacks and teamsters and sailors from the sea.
There's farmin' boys from Texas and the hills of Tennessee.
There's miners from Kentucky. There's fishermen from Maine.
Every worker in the country rides that Farmer-Labor train.

There's warehouse boys and truckers and guys that skin the cats,
Men that run the steel mills, the furnace and the blast.
Through the smoky factory cities, o'er the hot and dusty plains,
And the cushions they are crowded, on this Farmer-Labor train.

Listen to the jingle and the rumble and the roar.
She's rollin' through New England to the West Pacific shore.
It's a long time we've been waitin'. Now she's been whistlin' 'round the bend.
Ride on into Congress on that Farmer-Labor train.

[HARMONICA TRAIN WHISTLE IMITATION]

There's folks of every color and they're ridin' side by side,
Through the swamps of Louisiana and across the Great Divide,
From the wheat fields and the orchards and the lowing cattle range,
And they're rolling onto victory on this Farmer-Labor train.

This train pulled into Washington a bright and happy day.
When she steamed into the station, you could hear the people say:
"There's that Farmer-Labor Special. She's full of union men,
Headin' onto White House on the Farmer-Labor train."

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 25-Apr-03.

18 Mar 02 - 03:41 PM (#671459)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: BanjoRay

Looks as if it's got the same tune as the Wabash Cannonball

Cheers
Ray

18 Mar 02 - 03:43 PM (#671461)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: woody guthrie song with train soun
From: Spartacus

strikingly similar. we could do a thesis on how many songs do.

-spartacus

25 Apr 03 - 09:35 AM (#939887)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Farmer-Labor Train (Woody Guthrie)
From: Jim Dixon

Interesting. That appears to be a campaign song for the Farmer-Labor Party, which was once powerful enough to elect a few governors and senators. In Minnesota, the Farmer-Labor Party eventually merged (in 1944) with the Democratic Party to form the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, or DFL, which is the official name of the Democratic Party affiliate in Minnesota to this day.

Click here for a brief history of the party.

25 Apr 03 - 11:27 AM (#939977)
Subject: RE: Farmer-Labor Train (Woody Guthrie)
From: Parsa

Spartacus, It seems you found the lyrics. Probably here:
The Songs of Woody Guthrie: Farmer Labor Train

I have this song on the following CD:
"Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters," Smithsonian/Folkways SF CD 40046, 1994

It's also on a Bear Family record, and here's a quote from it that's on that web site:

"Farmer-Labor Train" is Guthrie's call for farmers and laborers to organize a political party. In June 1948 "People's Songs" felt the song was ideal for Henry Wallace's third-party Presidential campaign. It printed the song as Guthrie sang it in a twelve-page songbook, "Songs for Wallace." The second edition of that book was issued two months later, after Senator Glen Taylor was chosen as Wallace's running mate. The new edition replaces "farmer-labor" with "Wallace-Taylor."

Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, liner notes for "Songs for Political Action," Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 114.


Parsa

25 Apr 03 - 11:37 AM (#939987)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Farmer-Labor Train (Woody Guthrie)
From: Art Thieme

Woody Guthrie aside, that "Woooo,Woooo,Woooo, Woooo" that you so eloquently describe sounds almost exactly like any of 50 John Gorka "choruses" !!!

Art Thieme