Train Songs For Nate

[barondave]

A while ago, markiv1111 was looking for train songs for his new band and was going to post the request on LJ. I haven't seen the request, and don't know if he still needs any suggestions, but I started a list and might as well post it. Several songs were already being played or otherwise were noted, so this list doesn't have obvious ones like Wabash Cannonball or City of New Orleans.

After mulling it over for a while, here are ten suggestions of train songs, trying to balance audience familiarity, appropriateness and songs I'd like to hear played.

Here Comes The Santa Fe by Rider In the Sky. A good, uptempo, country dance with yodeling.

Hobo Bill by Cisco Houston. An old song that deserves resurrection.

The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. The whole song takes place on a train, though it's not exactly a train song.

Last Train To Clarksville by the Monkees. One of my least favorite Monkees songs, it's also one of their biggest hits.

Big Ball's In Cowtown by Bob Wills. Bad YouTube of song. A spritely dance number, though only peripherally a train song.

Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight and the Pips. A dash of funk for the band.

Cannily Cannily by Steeleye Span. A great, haunting lullaby from my favorite group. Don't know if Nate's band can pull if off.

500 Miles trad. A sad train song that everyone knows.

Petticoat Junction tv theme. Oh, they'll be singing along with this...

Orange Blossom Special by Rouse and Wise. An instrumental, but one of the purist train songs around. Vassar Clemens and friends.

Bonus audio link: Wabash Cannonball as performed by The Chieftains w/Ricky Skaggs.

Any other good train songs out there? With the airline industry in turmoil and fuel costs soaring, trains may be making a comeback.

Comments

[guppiecat]

* Magnetic Fields - I Was Born On A Train
* Cat Stevens - Peace Train
* Tom Russell - Downtown Train
* Trad - Lake Of Pontchartrain (OK, maybe not this one :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Josh Ritter - Harrisburg
Liz Phair - Baby Got Goin' (Certain Parties inform me that this song is about sex and not about trains. I am very sure that it is about sex and about trains.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, and:
They Might Be Giants - Mrs. Train

[idea-fairy.livejournal.com]

Sort of brainstorming a list of train songs, without worrying about how appropriate they are or aren't, who the artists are, and so on.


Sentimental Journey

Pufferbillies (Down by the station, early in the morning ...)

Chattanooga Choo-Choo

Shuffle off to Buffalo

Engine 77404 ("Engine 77404, the old steam engine, is making his last trip, toward the graveyard of old engines ...")

Folsom Prison Blues


I'll probably think of a bunch more after I post this. You know how that goes.

train songs

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Hey, everybody, thanks so much for this! I will see which ones I can locate and try to do so before the next time I see my bandleader (who, on this kind of gig, likes to be known as Cannonball Paul) to see what might go into our second set.

Nate

Re: train songs

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I can send you mp3s all the songs I listed, and several of the others.

Re: train songs

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I'm not clear even now on what an mp3 is. I would appreciate this, but before you do what may be a fair amount of work for me, you and I should probably have a conversation. Some of these definitely won't work. (Last Train to Clarksville relies on what I consider a wonderful complex guitar part, but there is nobody in our band who could play it, with me on bass.) But there are a number there that are new to me, and hence intriguing. Let's talk tonight.

Nate

Re: train songs

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Short answer: I'd e-mail you mp3s, but make a CD from aiff. You can play the CD on your CD player, but both formats will play on your computer.

Just for fun, I checked my system and quickly made a playlist with nine of the songs under discussion. Assuming I can find the CDs, it doesn't take much to add the song to iTunes and then burn a CD. It would probably take me an hour or so to add several other songs and then burn a CD for you. At which point I'd have the songs on my system and wouldn't need to do it again.

Sure, let's talk. Call or e-mail me.

And yes, powersalad is extremely knowledgeable and has a large collection. You two musicians should be on each other's FLists.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Casey Jones
Tons of Steel

[powersalad.livejournal.com]

Main lyrics escape me at the moment, but how bout "I'm a Train" by Albert Hammond....

I'm a Train

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Not only am I familiar with this song, but I had been thinking about this just a week or so ago. This might be an example of something I should discuss with my bandleader. He's been relying heavily (perhaps a bit too heavily) on old country train songs, nothing newer; I think some of the more uptempo current ones would work just as well. (I played him "Glendale Train" by the New Riders of the Purple Sage. He loved it.)

Nate

[calimac.livejournal.com]

For an instrumental number (or maybe Nate could write lyrics for it, if anyone could), "The Little Train of the Caipira" by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Nice tune.