Nominate your favorite rail-related songs.
I have 2 categories, I’m sure there will be others.
City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman
Canadian Railroad Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot
I won’t post links to them as they are easily found.
One of the best railroad songs NOT involving actual railroading:
Tom Rush, Panama Limited.
And a couple of good railroad-themed tone poems:
Arthur Honegger, Pacific 231
Gerry Mulligan, K4 Pacific (from ‘The Age of Steam’)
I nominate “Southern Pacific” by Neil Young.
Ed
Baltimore & Ohio
Driving the Last Spike, Genesis.
One of the most underappreciated guitar players of any genre is the late Jerry Reed. This is the only performance of ‘Wabash Cannonball’ that I could find:
There are very few renditions of ‘Orange Blossom Special’ that appeal to me. Here is one by Seatrain, featuring the amazing Richard Greene on violin:
Possibly the worst train song I’ve heard all day
Harvest Train by Tamarack (1991) - most ‘inside’ lyric: “I curse you William C. van Horn” - who else would understand that ?
Lyrics to Harvest Train
By the time I heard that evening train
he was gone, gone, gone
Headed for those fields of grain
in the far Saskatchewan
Oh the times they were so hard
and the fish were few
Oh, what’s a Maritimer
gonna do
Oh my heart, the C.P.R. has taken
Every good man in Nova Scotia
Gone away on that Harvest Train
to the Prairie’s Golden Ocean
Far from me
(Far from me)
Oh I had sensed his restlessness
ever since the autumn came
all those trains were headed west
they were calling out his name
Oh every time I heard that whistle blow
I wondered if it was his time to go
Oh my heart …
I curse you William C. van Horn
you don’t know what you’ve done
you’ve taken my man from the
place he was born
left me here with his new son
Oh the prairies always seemed
so far away before
now the railway’s come and
made them close as an “All aboard!”
Oh my heart …
Put me down for " you can hear the whistle blowing 500 miles by peter, Paul and Mary
My favorite railroad song is “Fireball mail,” sung by Hank Snow (or anyone else good). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-bK0Y-00I
Another is “City of New Orleans” as sung by Arlo Guthrie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg8bKjXmE-s
As a lad I loved the theme to the TV show “Casey Jones.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig3GcDBjQN4
And the classic folk song “John Henry” remains as profound a piece of music as any our country has produced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66r3zZoO4dQ&spfreload=10
The railroad runs through the middle of the house…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4BYdTrkWoo
And I’ve always loved Gerry Mulligan’s “K4 Pacific” mentioned by Wizlish
The O.P. has it right. Nobody — including Steve’s friend Arlo — ever sang a finer version of “City of New Orleans” than the writer, Steve Goodman. Try to find an unaccompanied version, with just Steve and his guitar.
In deference to “City of New Orleans”, I understand Gordon Lightfoot jokingly referred to his “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” as the second best railroad song ever written. Joking or not, he was probably right.
I would also offer for your consideration any railroad song by Bruce “Utah” Phillips. His version of “Wabash Cannonball”, paired with his “Tolono” is moving. “Daddy What’s a Train” is a classic. “Starlight On The Rails”, a poem with musical accompaniment, will stir your soul, and “Old Buddy Goodnight” will bring you to tears: “There’s some things worse than dyin’ alone, and one of ‘em’s livin’ that way.” Phillips was a true poet.
Tom
P.S. MikeF90, I like Seatrain’s version of “Orange Blossom Special”, but have you heard the version Vassar Clements did on the Will The Circle Be Unbroken album?
So many. For starters:
“Big Midnight Special,” the version by Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper
“Lonesome Whistle,” by Hank Williams
“Ben Dewberry’s Final Run,” by Jimmie Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman
“Streamlined Cannonball,” by Roy Acuff
“Railroad Lady,” by Lefty Frizzell
“Lonesome Joe,” by Roy Acuff
“Sunshine Special,” by Roy Acuff
“The Last Ride,” by Hank Snow
“I’m Movin’ On,” by Hank Snow
“Cherokee Fiddle,” by Johnny Lee
Yes, and “In the Baggage Coach Ahead,” by Mac Wiseman!
“The Engineer’s Child,” by many, from Vernon Dalhart thru Hank Snow
“Hummingbird,” by Johnnie & Jack
“The Gambler,” by Kenny Rogers
“Waiting for a Train,” by Jimmie Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman
“Life’s Railway to Heaven,” by many
“The Bluegrass Express,” by the Osborne Brothers
“Wreck of the Old 97,” by many
“Night Train to Memphis,” by Roy Acuff
“Bringin’ in the Georgia Mail,” by Charlie Monroe and many others
“Southern Dixie Flyer,” by Marty Robbins
“Teardrops Falling in the Snow,” by Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper; also by Porter Wagoner
Thanks a lot for getting us started, Shoot180! (I’ll be kept up tonight remembering 20 more.)
Dakota Fred,
My Bro, Mi Amigo,
Every one of your list’s entries bears fomdness from my recollections of '40’s, 50’s and later.
How ‘bout some from the 30’s. Of course that circles the singin’ brakeman, Jimmie Rogers songbook; I want to through in 2 recordings of what I think are original music.
A western oriented singing group from the depession-wracked eastern U.S. went to California maybe “riding on the rods.”
2 songs came out: “Way Out There” and “One More Ride.”
The railroad references are faultless, after listening if you’re not there, then listen to the (really) the yodeling.
It replicates the classic and required crossing warning whistle/horn sound.
Roy Rogers may have been in that group of the original “Son’s of the Pioneers.”
“Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash; also “The midnight Special”
http://www.johnnycashonline.com/music/story-songs-of-the-trains-and-rivers
http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop/songs.html
Check out this list of 23, with commentary about each one, some with multiple artists:
http://harpers.org/blog/2014/06/the-twenty-three-best-train-songs-ever-written-maybe/
Look a yonder comin’
Comin’ down that railroad track
Hey- look a ynder comin’
Comin’ down that railraod track
It’s the Orange Blossom Special
Bringin’ my baby back…
i have not heard that song in 50 years! My daughters have always thought I made it up. Thank you for posting it.
Let me add " The Wreck of C&O #5" sung by Pick Temple. (Those who grew up in the DC area in the 1950’s will remember Pick).
I’m kind of partial to Johnny Cash’s first hit “Hey Porter” from the early fifties on the Sun Records label.
1VdBQlrO7K6Yg~~60_57.JPG)
Everly Brothers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozOAasuG164