So this weekend has been filled up with yard work and related crap. Ran out of time so I gots not much. On my bike ride, I thought of doing a trains edition but my brain's fried so I can't think of too many except for a few well-known standards, plus some Utah Phillips. The standards, of course, will be mega-easy.
OTOH, the Utah Phillips songs will be unfamiliar to pretty much everybody so the ones I include will have lots of lyrics and major hints, and still no one will get any of them. Be that as it may, here is a small compendium of train songs, with a promise to try to revisit the category in the future and do better (Xenu willing and the creek don't rise).
1) She ain't tall and handsome, but she's quite well known by all. Who is she? [Wolfwalker: The Wabash Cannonball]
2) Well, I'm going down to Florida and will get some sand in my shoes. What am I riding? [Greg: The Orange Blossom Special]
3) What's a mighty good road? [Wolfwalker: The Rock Island Line]
4) This rattler's the fastest in the southern land. What does it do? [Answer: It keeps movin' me on]
5) I'm on the third boxcar on the midnight train. What's my destination? [Wolfwalker: Bangor, Maine]
6) I'm passing graveyards of rusted automobiles. What am I riding? [Wolfwalker: The steel magic carpet called "The City of New Orleans"]
Okay, enough of the mega-easy standards. Here are some Utah Phillips songs. I'm including lots more lyrics than usual, not because I think it will help to answer the questions (they probably won't) but because the lyrics are haunting and lovely. The main point of listing them is to introduce you to them. Look the lyrics up, if you've a mind to. It will be worth your while.
7) I don't know where he came from, his train was a U.P. freight. If there's someone waiting for him down below, he'll be a little bit late. So give him a line in your paper and here's what I want you to say: There's some things worse than dying alone. One of them is what? [Answer: One of them is living that way]
8) I guess his name was Boomer Bill, if that don't do another will. A hobo doesn't need a name 'cause he never gets no mail. The only friend old Boomer had to ride with him through good and bad was a shaggy little mongrel. What was that mongrel called? [Answer: She was called "Queen of the Rails"]
9) Like a bird on the wing, I hear a voice sing as over the prairies I roll. But I'd give my life to spend one more night where? [Answer: I'd give my life to spend one more night in the arms of my old Phoebe Snow]
10) I think about tomorrow and wonder why it is that we give up all the things we love the most. Goodbye, you old hog. I'll have to ride the Dog until they build a subway coast to coast. No round trip ticket, you're on the final run. This [Wabash] Cannonball is never coming back. Tomorrow she'll just be another memory and an echo down a rusty railroad track. Where am I going? [Answer: Heading for Tolono]
1. looks like a variant of the Wabash Cannonball, but not any that I've heard. A parody?
3. The Rock Island Line.
5. You're the King of the Road and you're headed for Bangor, Maine.
6. You're riding the steel magic carpet called the City of New Orleans.
Posted by: wolfwalker at March 30, 2008 06:04 PM1) Correct; not a parody, but not the same lyrics that the Carter Family sang (this is specifically the lyric Utah Phillips sang, but I've heard same by other folks too).
All others: exactamundo.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 30, 2008 06:09 PMNo 2 Orange Blossom Special
Posted by: Greg Newson at March 30, 2008 06:45 PMQuite so, Greg.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 30, 2008 07:20 PMThanks for letting me know about Utah Phillips.
I've heard of him but not familiar with his
music.