Songs about trains

[WhiteRoseKillie]

That's not actually about trains [emoji6]
 
All of my top 5 have been mentioned except this...
 

"We're on the train to Bangkok
Aboard the Thailand Express
We'll hit the stops along the way
We only stop for the best" Sounds pretty much like a train to me - especially as none of the products mentioned therein have an effect which you'd describe as "express". Anyhoo.. 1. Ozzy - Crazy Train. The POFD* returns from his Sabbath dismissal with a blistering album, with this as the single. Awesome. 2. See Above. The "other" side of 2112 has a couple of classics, including this and Something for Nothing. 3. Neil Young - Southern Pacific. There had to be something from the model nut who bought a large chunk of Lionel (US equivalent of Hornby) and has (or had, pre-divorce) a massive set up of his own:  
4. Chris De Burgh - Spanish Train. Yes, seriously. I've always been a sucker for a "story song", and back in the day this guy wrote some cracking stuff. The album has some other really good tracks, and it's hard to believe this talent came up with Lady in Red. Mind you, Chuck Berry's forever tarred with My Dingaling, and Jeff Beck must wish he'd never recorded hi-ho Silver Lining.
5. Grateful Dead - Casey Jones. Well, it's the Dead, innit?
* Prince of Fúckin' Darkness.

[velo army]

1. Funiculi funicula by Luigi Denza (and sung by Pavarotti).

Close thread

 

 

 

 

[Funky Nosejob]

Went down a YouTube rabbit hole following a post on the Music Subforum and found this classic from 1973.

 

[Aim Here]

 

[Mark Connolly]

3 hours ago, Funky Nosejob said:

Went down a YouTube rabbit hole following a post on the Music Subforum and found this classic from 1973.

 

That tune was used by Boney M for "Gotta Go Home", and was subsequently sampled by Armand Van Helden for the Duck Sauce "Barbara Streisand" tune.

[Detournement]

On 09/12/2021 at 17:37, Bully Wee Villa said:

Not really sure what the train reference is, but it has "train" in the name so it'll do.

 

It's in reference to Mick Jones getting the train to go and see Viv Albertine of the Slits and her telling him to GTF. 

Anyway Dylan obviously has a few but Slow Train Coming live from 1981 was an absolute beast of a tune. 

 

[Detournement]

And if you are really into songs about trains Dylan did two radio shows all about them. 

https://www.themetimeradio.com/episode-45-trains/

 

https://www.themetimeradio.com/episode-46-more-trains/

All the Theme Time shows are great for discovering old music. 

[Paul Kersey]

Don't think we've had this one yet...

 

[Eednud]

 

[printer]

Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull

Click Clack - Captain Beefheart

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam

Train to Skaville - The Ethiopians

National Express - Divine Comedy 

 

[falkirkthebigclub]

Inspiral Carpets b*****dised the glorious Find Out Why for a Saturday morning kids TV show, The 8:15 From Manchester.

Quite why anyone thought a kids show should be based around late 80s casual & drug culture is slightly baffling, probably because Tony Wilson.

Opening titles

[scottsdad]

Whilst the song isn't about trains, he does turn into one in the video

[WhiteRoseKillie]

On 07/02/2022 at 13:16, printer said:

Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull

Click Clack - Captain Beefheart

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam

Train to Skaville - The Ethiopians

National Express - Divine Comedy 

 

Quality song.

Not a train.

Just saying..

 

[Ginaro]

On 09/12/2021 at 17:24, Barney Rubble said:

It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry (Bob Dylan)

Bit before my time, but I'd heard of the Jools version. 

 

[BillyAnchor]

So I vaguely remember this poem in a BR advert way back in the 80s. Apparently the poem was part of the inspiration for Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys one of my fav songs.

 

Night Mail by WH Auden

 

This is the night mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.

Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,

Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from bushes at her blank-faced coaches.

Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.

In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in a bedroom gently shakes.


Dawn freshens, Her climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends,
Towards the steam tugs yelping down a glade of cranes
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In dark glens, beside pale-green lochs
Men long for news.


Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from girl and boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or to visit relations,
And applications for situations,
And timid lovers' declarations,
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled on the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, the adoring,
The cold and official and the heart's outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Thousands are still asleep,
Dreaming of terrifying monsters
Or of friendly tea beside the band in Cranston's or Crawford's:

Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
But shall wake soon and hope for letters,
And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

[Frosty]

So I vaguely remember this poem in a BR advert way back in the 80s. Apparently the poem was part of the inspiration for Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys one of my fav songs.
 
Night Mail by WH Auden
 
This is the night mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.

Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,

Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from bushes at her blank-faced coaches.

Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.

In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in a bedroom gently shakes.


Dawn freshens, Her climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends,
Towards the steam tugs yelping down a glade of cranes
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In dark glens, beside pale-green lochs
Men long for news.


Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from girl and boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or to visit relations,
And applications for situations,
And timid lovers' declarations,
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled on the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, the adoring,
The cold and official and the heart's outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Thousands are still asleep,
Dreaming of terrifying monsters
Or of friendly tea beside the band in Cranston's or Crawford's:

Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
But shall wake soon and hope for letters,
And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

Magnificent - even people who don’t like poetry will appreciate this one. It even sounds like a train when it’s being recited.

[Frosty]

So I vaguely remember this poem in a BR advert way back in the 80s. Apparently the poem was part of the inspiration for Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys one of my fav songs.
 
Night Mail by WH Auden
 
This is the night mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.

Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,

Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from bushes at her blank-faced coaches.

Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.

In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in a bedroom gently shakes.


Dawn freshens, Her climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends,
Towards the steam tugs yelping down a glade of cranes
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In dark glens, beside pale-green lochs
Men long for news.


Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from girl and boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or to visit relations,
And applications for situations,
And timid lovers' declarations,
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled on the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, the adoring,
The cold and official and the heart's outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Thousands are still asleep,
Dreaming of terrifying monsters
Or of friendly tea beside the band in Cranston's or Crawford's:

Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
But shall wake soon and hope for letters,
And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

Magnificent - even people who don’t like poetry will appreciate this one. It even sounds like a train when it’s being recited.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

5 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Magnificent - even people who don’t like poetry will appreciate this one. It even sounds like a train when it’s being recited.

Although Dundonians may feel left out

[Frosty]

Although Dundonians may feel left out

The monotone Received Pronunciation actually suits it.

There was also a great Postman Plod Night Mail parody that featured in Viz once - usual premise of Plod stealing anything of value from his sack and getting pissed rather than working all done with a tab hanging out his mouth and a stream of swear words being directed at anyone he came across. Actually not so much a parody more a real life documentary on the Royal Mail.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

3 minutes ago, Frosty said:

 

The monotone Received Pronunciation actually suits it.

There was also a great Postman Plod Night Mail parody that featured in Viz once - usual premise of Plod stealing anything of value from his sack and getting pissed rather than working all done with a tab hanging out his mouth and a stream of swear words being directed at anyone he came across. Actually not so much a parody more a real life documentary on the Royal Mail.

People used to take the piss out of Royal Mail staff for being crap and dishonest a lot more back in the days before Yodel, DPD and Hermes were a part of our lives