Favorite train songs


Hey Bad Order,

Jerry Garcia was the lead singer in Grateful Dead, singing the song. He died of a heart attack in drug treatment in 1995.

The group actually had a lot of cool folk music.


logandsawman
 
Hi Bad Order!

I never understood the appeal of folk music.

If you go by the millions of recordings folk artists have sold then it must be pretty cool to a lot of people.

It's a coincidence you should say that about the Grateful Dead. My friend loved one of their songs from 1979, 1980 or so and he would always turn it up when it came on the radio and I would say "I will be grateful when they are dead!" Then I felt terrible when Jerry Garcia died. I meant I would be grateful if their music was dead.

I have been busy working on my latest toy train restoration projects and driving the school bus, my mini-van.

What have you been up too?


Thank you everyone for all the input! It is very interesting.

We have a wide variety of tastes here. Music is like our hobby, we all find some part of it we enjoy the most.

Just don't play it too loud! I know I am old because of the old saying "if it's too loud then your too old"

Sometimes I play my old heavy metal loud in my basement, but after a minute or so my wife comes down and asks "honey are you alright?"

I had a neighbor that played classic rock all afternoon on the weekends outside. I like classic rock, but give me a break and turn it down! I'm trying to sit in the shade and listen to a ball game on my little transistor radio! I politely asked him to turn it down and he did. He said "I'm sorry I did not realize it was bothering anyone" I said "Ok" and thought to myself as I walked away, "that was strange".

To each his own, but don't make yours mine too!

That's it for me, now back to restoring my toy trains.

Louis
 
Bad Order said:
...This also includes the great American composers of timeless standards and music from the great Broadway shows. Composers such as:
George Gershwin

Irving Berlin

Jerome Kern

Richrd Rodgers

Harold Arlen

So that's my Musical Profile, dudes!
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Bad,

I'm surprised that you've left out possibly the greatest American composer of all; Arron Copeland. His early jazz works, his ballets, Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, his work during WWII, 3rd Symphony, from the 30's, Fanfare for the Common Man.

While never as popular as Gershwin, I believe he's much better.

My tastes runs the gamut from my absolute favorite, Classical, I have a complete collection of Beethoven, some Bach, (Including JS and all his offspring), Tchaikovsky Ravel, to Classic rock and some country, (Alabama's my favorite), progressive rock as in Jethro Tull, Yes. I will listen to anything once, and if I like it I'll get it. I also prefer my music on vinyl, (currently over 2500 albums), as CD's just seems to miss some of the richness of the music.
 
G'day Louis ..Fun topic...thanks...My favourite train song comes from a 1970s Santa Fe commercial...I have a sneaky suspicion though it might actually be a real song that ATSF used part of..Not sure.. "see her comin' down the line . I think it's engine number 49...is how it starts...mind you the Then along came Jones , slow walkin Jones , slow talkin' Jones..along came long lean lanky Jones , has rail connotations too ..with the girl tied to the railroad tracks...Love those old fun songs...Cheers from Australia Rod..
 
Bad,

I just didn't mention them. I didn't want to clutter up the discussion with more composers:rolleyes:. As for the Grand Canyon Suite, its one of my favorites. Many years ago, Walt Disney made a cartoon out of it.

It seems that everyone likes the T&F in D Minor, and esp by E.Power Biggs. One of the greatest organists, ever. But I like the "Little Fugue" just as well. But my absolute Bach favorite are the 6 Brandenburg Concertos, with #3 the best IMHO.
 
G';day all....Ray Stevens did a version of the song too...suppose it's been covered many times..Is a funny song.. Another version has a great film clip with the drummer doing the 'girl tied up' voices if I recall..probably on You Tube somewhere... Yes , Casey Jones great song and didn't Johnny Cash have a well known train song too..
What about UPs "we're a great big rolling railroad " commercial from the very early 70s..Check out the hair dos in those days...Cheers Rod...
 
G'day...YEP...thanks , that's the one.Folsom Prison Blues. The Buckaroos did a great version of ALONG CAME JONES too.It's on You Tube.On songs...Not sure what people think of Country and Western but a comedian said once that if you play a C/W song backwards the dog comes back to life , you get your job back , the car starts , the rain stops and your sweetheart doesn't leave you...Tell you what else...There's also some great trucking songs out there too..eg...."Gotta keep a ' movin"... not sure who sings it but great to listen too in the car....Thanks again Cheers Rod...
 
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Somebody did a song once, that he said it was the perfect C&W song. As long as the song had trucks, Mom, trains, rain, prison, heartbreak, and drunkeness in it, it would be perfect. So he wrote this;

I was drunk the day my Mom, got out of Prison.
And I was driving to get her in the pouring rain.
But before I could get to station in my pickup truck,
She dun went and got hit by a dadburn train!

I can't remember the name of the guy, but he recently passed and had written the song "Cocaine", and many others. I'll probably remember the name tonight about 0200.
 
Google suggests the song was co-written by John Prine and Steve Goodman (Goodman died in the 1980s), and made famous by David Allen Coe. I've never heard it , but it does sound like a great song!
 
And 'Cocaine' was written by JJ Cale, no connection to Steve Goodman song except they are both dead.
 
Bad Order- I'm with you on just about everything you posted. Let me add a few... "The Wayward Wind" by Gogi Grant ("In a loney shack by the railroad track, he spent his younger days. And I guess the sound of the outward bound made him a slave to his wanderin' ways..."
How about, "Hear The Whistle Blow"? "Well, every night I listen and lie awake and wait, And wish the railroad didn't run so near. I feel my pulse a-beatin' with that ol' fast freight, and thank the Lord I'm just a bum again!"

Of course, Casey Jones, as written by his friend. Don't care who sings it.
Peter, Paul & Mary: "If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone. You can hear that whistle blow a hundred miles. If those tracks run right, I'll be home tomorrow night, 'cause I'm nine-hundred miles from my home..."

Say, Bad Order, you claim to be the oldest on this or any other forum. What's your earliest memory of being close to a train? I remember (I was about 2 years old), somebody got me a ride in the cab of a Katy steam switcher. Scared the dickens out of me...but it must have been what got me innoculated into trains. But then, I also rode the Burlington #9900, that's now in the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. Would take it and others to see my Mom's folks in Quincy, Illinois. Got sidetracked in Galesburg, IL, in 1948, when President Truman's Whistle Stop Special came through. I was six, and my Dad was a staunch Republican. But he thought I ought to see the President. Since the Zephyr wasn't going anywhere, we got off and he put me up on his shoulders, and we got close...maybe 100 yards...as there was quite a crowd in front of us. The "Ferdinand Magellan" runs on my layout during election years, with Truman, an aide and Bess on the rear platform. As the train pulls into "Galesburg", Dad and I are there. (Took awhile to find the right figures.)

"I was born ten-thousand years ago. An' I'll whup the man that says it isn't so! I seen Peter, Paul an' Moses playin' ring-around-the-roses. An' I'll whup the man that says it isn't so!" :D
 
Y'all have mentioned many of my favorite train songs and Johnny Cash sang several songs about trains that I adore.
However, his version of "LONG BLACK TRAIN" sends shivers up my spine.
A couple other songs worth mentioning are "ORANGE BLOSSUM SPECIAL" by Boots Randolph and "THE GAMBLER" by Kenny Rogers.
So many songs to listen to and so little time to listen!
 
Ridin' On The L & N / Deep South Blues by the Bintangs. My grandfather worked on the L & N before he switched over to the Seaboard Air Line Railway. Sometime in the early part of the last century.

SALRy
 
Bad Order said:
The first 55 seconds was all of THAT I could stand!

Instead of driving us grownups crazy with that junk music and cave-man dress, why don't they try LEARN something from us?

I'm sure that the rhythm guitarist of that bunch doesn't even know how to make a Diminished or an Augmented chord!

Bad Order
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I have to be in the mood for it for sure now at almost 49 but when I was in high school in the early 80's, I couldn't get enough of that so called "noise" Bad Order. I am sure my late father, who would be your age Bad Order, would agree with you lol. I can hear him now..."CAN YOU PLEASE TURN THAT NOISE DOWN!?!?!?". And that was in the house....in my car, my 500 watt Rockford Fosgate amp would rattle the windows of the house before I turned the corner to get in the driveway. That's when he would just go ballistic with me and threaten to take my car keys.

AHHH...the memories...
 
I did not read this thread.....so I'm wondering if anyone mentioned the song.....Tons of Steel....by the Grateful Dead from their In the Dark CD....?? The longer title is nine hundred thousand tons of steel...out of control. It's about a big old steam locomotive.....and you get a sense from the lyrics this machine was suffering from age and perhaps severe lack of maintenance as well.....and likely piloted by hippie engineers with substance abuse issues... :cool:
 
Okay....went back and quickly read through the previous comments. Did not notice anyone mention the song Rock Island Line....which I remember the great Johnny Cash making that one famous. And Last Train Home is a nice jazz instrumental by The Pat Metheny Group.
 
railfan said:
Okay....went back and quickly read through the previous comments. Did not notice anyone mention the song Rock Island Line....which I remember the great Johnny Cash making that one famous. And Last Train Home is a nice jazz instrumental by The Pat Metheny Group.
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Heh, I just came in to post Last Train Home , what great tune.
 
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