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Train Songs
Posted at 3:20 PM on May 10, 2008
by Mark Wheat
(16 Comments)
It's the very first National Train Day, the birth of transcontinental travel and an indication of how important the trains were to the development of the nation. Which is probably why there are so many 'train songs'. Not just with lyrics about the train but also musical references to its sound and rythm. A lot of early American music is based on it and it perpetuates today, despite the unfortunate demise of the nation's rail system.
I've always had a strange afinity for these songs, perhaps because my grandfather was an engine driver and I always loved travelling on them when young. Check this afternoons playlist for the ones I played and if you have a favourite, lyrically or sonically, I would love to get your suggestions to add to my ever growing list of train songs!
Comments (16)
Here's some great ones:
Duke Ellington - "Take the A Train" and "Daybreak Express"
Tom Waits - "Train Song", "Downtown Train", and "Down There By the Train" (he likes trains)
The Decemberists - "Engine Driver"
Joni Mitchell - "Just Like That Train"
Some less obvious songs:
The Band - "Unfaithful Servant" focuses on the train as a way of fleeing tremendous guilt.
Elvis Costello - "Waiting For the End of the World" sees life as an unstoppable train of inexplicable events.
Bob Dylan - "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" only indirectly mentions trains in the lyric ("trainload of fools"), but Dylan has introduced the song in the past with a story about meeting a man with burning eyes while riding on a train. Puts the overall tone of the song into a sharpened perspective, I think; I can't listen to the song without picturing the various imagery in the lyrics as seen through the window of a shadowy train.
I am going to start with 3 off the top of my head. Trains have been a common theme of early Blues, and Country Music. From 1850 to 1950 trains were a huge part of American life. They are a very efficient method of transportation. Steel rails have very little friction. pennies per mile. Barges on the Mississipppi River may be more cost effective. They are a great mental image though. millions of pounds hurtling down a track that can not slow down fast or change direction easily.
Grateful Dead, Casey Jones, working mans dead, 1970
Bob Dylan, It take a lot to laugh, and a train to cry, 1965, Highway 61 Revisited
Soul Asylum, Runaway Train, 1993, Grave Dancers Union
Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train, 1980, Blizzard of Ozz
From an album issued in 1971 by New Riders of the Purple Sage, called "America's premier psychedelic cowboy band" emerged from the SF Bay area in'69...with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead... the song "Glendale Train" is a wonderfully whimsical tune. Carefull, once you hear the song, you'll have an uncontrollable urge hop a' board and ride 'till you get to Glendale...or b e y o n d.
I love stuff like this!
One of my favorite train songs is also one of my favorite break up songs: Magnetic Fields' "Born on a Train". Haunting, lovely, painful.
And while Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" is a good one, their earlier punkier hit "Tied to the Tracks" is often overlooked but shouldn't be.
Other faves:, R.E.M.'s "Driver 8"; Tom Wait's "Train Song", (in addition to "Downtown Train"), Run Westy Run's cover of "Freight Train", and Cat Steven's "Peace Train", and of course, Gladys Knight's enduring heartbreaker "Midnight Train to Georgia".And let's not forget the Monkees!
Some of these songs may only use trains as metaphor, (rather than the songs being ABOUT trains), but hey - that still counts, right?
Ali's Magnetic Fields pick is that rare break-up song that's also about vampires!
The Who - "5:15"
Bruce Springsteen - "Downbound Train"
The Magnetic Fields - "Fear of Trains"
Lots of good ones listed already!
I really enjoy theme playlists... howzabout:
The Woodentops - "Love Train" from "Giant"
(different song than the O'Jays version, from the happiest band of my college years)
Billy Bragg - Train, Train" from "Talking With The Taxman About Poetry"
(a little bit psychedelic)
Neil Young - "Train of Love" from "Sleeps With Angels"
(nice ballad from a melancholy but beautiful album)
Some great instrumental train songs that set the mood:
Pat Metheny Group - "Last Train Home" from "Still Life (Talking)"
(cool electric sitar sound)
Calexico - "Hot Rail" from "Hot Rail"
(love them twangy guitars)
Banco De Gaia - "Last Train to Lhasa" from "Last Train to Lhasa"
(I found it on "10 Years")
"Jumping Someone Else's Train", "Another Journey by Train" and "Subway Song" - The Cure
"The Metro" - Berlin
"I Often Dream of Trains" - Robyn Hitchcock
"Trans Europe Express" - Kraftwerk
"Into You Like A Train" - Psychedelic Furs
Wells took my Kraftwerk and P Furs suggestions. Great minds...
Not a pop song, nor even a traditional "song" by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd nominate "Different Trains" by Steve Reich as a wonderful piece of "Train Music". Using spoken word collages, string quartet, and sound effects, he pieced together three interesting sections about train travel in the US and Europe.
How could I have forgotten?! ..one of my favorite Train-ish songs: "East Berlin by Rail" by Slow Children.
Hit me over the head - I forgot "Train in Vain" by my all time favorite band The Clash. d'oh!
There is also the local band of yore Loose Rails.
And let's not forget the band Train!
That was a joke; let's DO forget the band Train.
You Never Even Call Me By My Name - David Allen Coe
"Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song
and he told me it was the perfect country and western song
I wrote him back a letter and told him it was NOT the perfect
country and western song because he hadn't said anything about
Momma, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin' drunk."
A CLASSIC!
Can anyone help with who sings that song from the 70's "Train, Train". Sounds sort of like a southern rock and but for some reason I think it was a band whose member's were Native American????
Also Fred Eaglesmith has numerous songs about trains - all great!
Was it Blackfoot?
I believe Wells is right. I think it was Blackfoot. Saw them open for The Who, I think. I remember the song very well. Ricky Medlocke went on to play with Skynyrd in more recent years.
How about "Ivor The Engine Driver" by the Who?
Yep - Blackfoot it is!! Guess those brain cells died awhile ago. Thanks so much!!
49 Tons of Diesel Locomotive - Fred Eagelsmith
On his Drive In Movie CD - great song!
Oh! "Train" by the Blake Babies
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