I may have missed it, but I do not recall that anyone has mentioned “Gonna take a sentimental journey.”
Mel McDaniel -Let It Roll
My favorites are any & all of them, sad to glad. Any song about trains and rails helps keep alive a part of our history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy4a2XB_dAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grj6LJuIdOo
“Why Do They All Take The Night Boat To Albany and Grab The Next Train To New York?”
“Hey Engineer”
Houston Train by Katie Toupin, of a rocking quartet known as Houndmouth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3r9Cp2ALX8
User carnej1 proposes starting a list of railroad-related ‘prog rock’ songs, with the initial example of Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans Europ Express’
Here’s the original studio version (‘Trans Europa Express’) which you may not have heard:
Maybe that’s not purely ‘progressive’, as carnej1 indicated, but it’s good enough to be here.
Maybe I missed it, but no one mentioned Woody Guthrie’s " This Train is Bound for Glory." Another one I like is “Dixie Cannonball” as done by Gene Autry, and “Mystery Pacific” done by Django Reinhardt. Asleep at the Wheel did a dynamite version of “Choo Choo Ch’boogie” in the 70s. Hell, anything by Johnny Cash and if it doesn’t mention trains, so what?
For Train song:it has to be City of New Orleans-Arlo Guthrie version. Dad loved it and he died a year later, so that song has many memories for me.
Railroad song-can’t think of any that are favorites-but do like Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. Some of these mentioned I have never heard.
Baggage Car Ahead-had never heard it but Mom said that was a reminder of her father’s casket in Frisco baggage car. Her mom had to present his pass when they loaded the casket. He was buried in St. James, MO on the Frisco main and there was one car filled with friends and family that all worked for Frisco-no revenue for that car.
It’s not really a “train” song as such, but Gene Autry has a song called “The Ballad of Jimmy Rogers.”
My Lord, I don’t know how I could have forgotten this song (and it really isn’t a ‘railroad’ song per se), but I was over in the Passenger thread reading about the sleeperless westbound trains, and it reminded me…
As with ‘Panama Limited’, hard to hear this and not be moved.
Rock island Line by Johnny Cash on Sun Records
A couple of topical references:
"200 miles an hour on that Washington DC run…
And at one time the presence of oil trains was downright nostalgic…
Gads, hard question! Trinity River Bottoms Boomer will just comment.
City of New Orleans version by Arlo Guthrie is by far the best! C&W singer Sunny James recorded “68 Rock Island Line”, George Hamilton IV recorded Canadian Pacific which was on his LP Steel Rail Blues. For us Bible Pounders, the great gosple hymn, Life is Like a Mountain Railroad (also recorded by GHIV).
Hard to pick a favorite. Steam Locomotive Man Steele Craver (Six Flags over Texas) liked Kraftwerk’s TransEurop Express and couldn’t get it in the States. Lucky for him I live in Germany…what you won’t do for a friend! It is a neat song though. Wonder how many other countries have railroad related songs?
Much as I love Arlo’s version, I still prefer the original City of New Orleans, as written and performed by Steve Goodman.
Arlo changed the lyrics a bit. He said “They ride their fathers’ magic carpet made of steel. And mothers with their babes asleep go rockin’ to the gentle beat; the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.”
Steve’s original lyric was “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.”
Steel and feel don’t carry the same wistful, ethereal connotation as steam and dream. Steel is hard and cold; steam is soft and warm; dream is more appealing to the senses than feel, which is vague and nonspecific. Arlo’s piano also doesn’t seem quite as appropriate as Steve’s guitar (with fiddle on his studio release).
There seems to be a consensus that the John Denver version is the worst. He changed “old black men” to “old gray men”, and made other changes that Steve, for one, hated.
Maybe it’s just personal taste, or maybe I’m partial to Steve’s version because I heard it first — probably before Arlo heard it.
No matter who did it, if “City” isn’t the greatest American railroad song, we can agree that it’s certainly among the very best. John Denver messed it up, but even he couldn’t ruin it.
Tom
(edited)