Nice tune Bucyrus…the sort that just grows on you after a few listens…great rhythm and beat as well.
[quote user=“SSW9389”]
I see Ed posted a Neil Young song so here is another:
See The Sky About To Rain
Written and performed by Neil Young
From the 1974 Album “On The Beach”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(Neil_Young_album)
See The Sky About To Rain
See the sky about to rain,
broken clouds and rain.
Locomotive, pull the train,
whistle blowing
through my brain.
Signals curling on an open plain,
rolling down the track again.
See the sky about to rain.
Some are bound for happiness,
some are bound to glory
Some are bound to live with less,
who can tell your story?
See the sky about to rain,
broken clouds and rain.
Locomotive, pull the train,
whistle blowin’
through my brain.
Signals curlin’ on an open plain,
rollin’ down the track again.
See the sky about to rain.
I was down in Dixie
I almost mentioned “See the Sky about to rain” but absolutely forgot about “locomotive pull the train”, thinking only of “signals curlin on an open plain”.
See the Sky is a great song from a very rich, yet depressing album which was very reflective of the mid 70’s, the hippie days were gone and we were left with the ugliness of post Viet Nam, post Nixon, and the beginning of reality.
Ed
( >> Substitute RS-18 for “locomotive” horn for whistle, and voila, we have our first diesel locomotive song.<< )
… first …?
= J =
Hi all
Some links to songs – I’d like to read your comments :
Probably take too much space to get into here, but you could do an interesting article on the history of the “Wabash Cannonball” and it’s different variations going back to the 1890’s or so…a folk song that was discovered and published and then forgotten and then became a folk song again, and was rediscovered by A.P. Carter and recorded, and then to the Crazy Tennesseans recording which really popularized it (with Roy Acuff on fiddle and train whistle sound - but not vocals!! He didn’t record his own solo version until I think 1947.)
Well , isn’t it intriguing that train songs with very few exceptions were from the 1950s , 1940s , 1930s or earlier ? And then they were mostly country and folk songs .
I feel that tells something about RRs vanishing from view in the public mind and certainly from the citizen’s minds …
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You folks must believe me, for this be the truth. I seek no glory or fame. I seek only to speak the truth and be judged accordingly. There is a song about a diesel powered train. It’s title is: “Texas - 1947”. Johnny Cash covered the song in his album “Look At Them Beans”.
Now bein’ six years old, I had seen some trains before,
so it’s hard to figure out what I’m at the depot for.
Trains are big and black and smokin’ - steam screamin’ at the wheels,
bigger than anything they is, at least that’s the w
There are some good train songs on ‘Chessie’s 8,000 Mile Birthday Party’ that I’ve never heard elsewhere (A video commissioned by Chessie to document their stream excursions at the time). No clue what their names or who the artist were.
Here is a link to Texas - 1947: Johnny Cash-Texas 1947 - YouTube
Ok , now since train music seems to be much identified with Johnny Cash and a few more country singers mostly before autumn 1949 , here’s a record of old Johnny Cash songs , the record’s title is ‚Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two - Story Songs of the Trains and Rivers’ ; there’s even a steam loco graphic on the cover and it contains the following titles :
Side A
Hey Porter 2:12 ( Johnny Cash , Hi-Lo Music ) / Train of Love 2:22 ( Johnny Cash , Knox Music ) / I Heard that Lonesome Whistle 2:24 ( Williams & Davis , Peer Int’l ) / Port of Lonely Hearts 2:33 ( Johnny Cash , Knox
“peanut sitting on a railroad track, it’s heart all a flutter. Trains comes rolling down the track. Toot! Toot! Peanut but-ter!”
That’s part of a great children’s song.
I love Johnny Cash’s train songs, particularly " Rock Island Line"
“Well the engineer said before he died there were two more drinks he’d like to try. Conductor said what could they be? Hot cup of coffee and cold glass of tea.”
Merle Haggard put out an album in the ear;ly seventies of entirely train songs. If you can find a copy, get it. All the songs are great.
Here is a nice railroad work song. Nice video too. Lots of faces looking back at you across time. I wonder what the world looked like to them.
Personal favorites-City of New Orleans-Arlo Guthrie version
We also liked Johnny Cash-Orange Blossom Special and Ride That Train-Dad had the album.
And the oldies like Chattanooga Choo Choo
[quote user=“Juniatha”]
Well , isn’t it intriguing that train songs with very few exceptions were from the 1950s , 1940s , 1930s or earlier ? And then they were mostly country and folk songs .
I feel that tells something about RRs vanishing from view in the public mind and certainly from the citizen’s minds …
=
Railroads may nolonger be part of the common folklore, but that’s also true of trucking and aviation. Remember back in the 70s with the CB craze? 10-4 good buddy, breaker 19, and all that nonsense? Mostly gone now…And so is much of private aviation because even your Cessna is beyond the reach of most people’s pocketbook. The romance is gone…and with it went the music.
Hi Firelock
Well , actually I’m off this thread – however to answer to you :
That steam whistle was the call to adventure to a lot of bored farm boys who at days end probably said to themselves, “***, there’s GOT to be something better than THIS!”
“One veteran of the rails expressed the opinion of thousands when he
said, “When I was a kid, boys did not go to work on the railroad simply
because their fathers did. What fetched them was the sights and sounds of
moving trains, and above all the whistle of a locomotive. I’ve heard the call
of the wild, the call of the law, the call of the church. There is also the call of
the Railroad—or there used to be in my day.” wrote Era Ross Standefer in
her 1949 thesis The Romance of Railroading.
It still works that way…sort of. When I was a kid back in the 70s the sound of trains rolling through the valley got me interested and thinking about a career on the railroad. That didn’t happen, but I did get into trucking, and now I get to see my family name rolling down the highway in big 36 in. letters… Not quite the same with the romance and all…but close enough.
There are a lot of train songs. I really like the train wreck ballads. Wreck of the Sportsman, Wreck of the C&O #5 was sang to me as a child by my grandparents. The Wreck of the Old 97 of course is a great one. There is a great book entitled “Scalded to Death by the Steam” that lists and has lyrics to most of these tunes.