“Now listen to the jingle, and the rumble, and the roar, As she dashes thro’ the woodland and speeds along the shore, See the mighty rushing engine, hear her merry bell ring out, As they speed along in safety, on the Great Rock Island Route.” – J. A. Roff (1882) “The Great Rock Island Route”, …
“Heading for the station with a pack on my back I’m tired of transportation in the back of a hack I love to hear the rhythm of the clickity-clack And hear the lonesome whistle, see the smoke from the stack” – Choo Choo Ch’boogie (Darling/ Gabler/ Vaughn) © Warner Chappell Music In post-war, mid-century America, …
“Last night as I lay on the boxcar Just waiting for a train to pass by What will become of the hobo Whenever his time comes to die” – Hobo’s Meditation (Jimmie Rodgers) © Peermusic Publishing Hobo (noun) \ ˈhō-bō \ 1: a migratory worker 2: a homeless and usually penniless vagabond According to Merriam-Webster, …
“People get ready For the train to Jordan Picking up passengers From coast to coast” – People Get Ready (Mayfield) © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music “In the slave period here, one of the things that was prominent was the song – how the songs extolled the glory of God . . . You …
“You must take the ‘A’ train To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem” – Take the “A” Train (Strayhorn) © EMI Music Publishing Formally organized as a village in 1658 by Dutch immigrants, Harlem is now a neighborhood that occupies the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Named for …
“Riding on the city of New Orleans Illinois Central, Monday morning rail Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders Three conductors, twenty-five sacks of mail” – City of New Orleans (Steve Goodman) © Sony/ATV Music The story goes that in 1970 Arlo Guthrie was doing five shows a night at the Quiet Knight bar in Chicago …
“Train, train, comin’ down, down the line Train, train, comin’ down, down the line Well, it’s bringin’ my baby ’cause she’s mine, all mine” – Mystery Train (Herman Parker Jr. / Sam Phillips) © Sony/ATV Music Born on his parents’ 200-acre farm near Florence, Alabama, the youngest of eight children, Sam Phillips was no stranger …
“Folsom Prison Blues”, is surely one of the best known train songs of the modern era. If not the most popular song in singer Johnny Cash’s catalog, it certainly ranks in the top five.
. . . What I didn’t know until just a few years ago, is that this song that has become so identifiable with its author, really isn’t Johnny’s song at all.
Born on September 8, 1897, in Meridian, Mississippi, James Charles Rodgers has become known as “The Father of Country Music”.