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Listen to the Jingle

January 20, 2020 / C R Burgan

“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”, is an American folk song credited to J. A. Roff. Published in 1882, the song celebrates the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, which was incorporated in 1851. The line’s first trains began running in 1852, between Chicago & Joliet, with continued construction reaching Rock Island by February 1854, making the railroad the first to connect Chicago to the Mississippi River.

At the peak of its service, the Rock Island Line stretched across Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas. In the heyday of passenger rail travel, Rock Island operated the Golden State Limited (Chicago—Kansas City—Tucumcari—El Paso—Los Angeles) jointly with Southern Pacific Railroad.

But like many railroads, the Rock Island Line experienced waning profitability in the modern age of transportation, and in the 1970s bankruptcy loomed. After the railroad’s final train battled three days of snowdrifts to arrive in Denver on March 31, 1980, the insolvent company was liquidated. In 1984, after all assets were sold, and all debts were paid, the company found itself with a large amount of cash, changed its name to Chicago Pacific Corporation, and soon purchased the Hoover appliance company.

An interesting side note:
A spur of the Rock Island Railroad that ran beside a small hotel in Eldon, Missouri, was the inspiration for the popular 1960s television show Petticoat Junction. Ruth Henning, whose grandmother owned the hotel, was a co-creator of the show, along with her husband Paul, who also created The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.

“Listen to the jingle, the rumble, and the roar
As she glides along the woodland o’er the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine hear those lonesome hoboes call
Traveling through the jungle on the Wabash Cannonball” – William Kindt (1904)

Alvin Pleasant Delaney Carter was a musician and founding member of the Carter Family, one of the most influential performing groups in the history of American country music. Born in 1891 in Maces Springs, Virginia, Carter was known throughout his life simply as A.P. In 1927 he formed the Carter Family band, together with his wife, Sara, and her cousin Maybelle. A.P.’s employment as a salesman had him traveling extensively throughout Central Appalachia, where he set about collecting songs that he heard performed by Appalachian musicians, and at church services in isolated locales.

Towards the latter part of the 1920s, as RCA Victor’s Victrola record player was increasing in popularity, the company set about a search for more recorded content to sell to its quickly growing customer base. The company sent a mobile-recording team around the country, with one of the stops being in Bristol, Tennessee, just a few miles from Maces Springs. The Carter Family recorded several sides at the initial session, which soon became popular nation-wide.

As the Carter Family recordings continued to sell in even greater numbers, A.P. returned to the remote hills and hollows in search of more material for his group to record.

The Carter Family would make one of the first known recordings of “Wabash Cannonball” in 1929, though it would not be released until 1932. A.P. Carter and his group would become so identified with the song, that some sources list him as its composer.

“From the great Atlantic ocean to the wide Pacific shore
She climbs a flowery mountain o’er the hills and by the shore
She’s mighty tall and handsome she’s known quite well by all
She’s a regular combination on the Wabash Cannonball” – William Kindt

A rewritten version of “The Great Rock Island Route” appeared in 1904 under the title “Wabash Cannon Ball”; the song is credited to William Kindt. Retaining the “Rock Island” melody, as well as the main chorus structure, the song now told the story of a fictional train, traveling through the hobo jungles along its continental odyssey.

There are many theories as to the origin of “The Wabash Cannonball”. Labor organizer, folksinger and storyteller, Utah Phillips, believes that hobos imagined a mythical train called the Wabash Cannonball which was a “death coach” that appeared at the death of a hobo to carry his soul to its reward (like Vikings on their way to Valhalla). The song was then created to tell the legend in rhythm & rhyme.

Another theory for the train’s origin states that the song is based on a tall tale in which Cal S. Bunyan, Paul Bunyan’s brother, constructed a railroad known as the Ireland, Jerusalem, Australian & Southern Michigan Line. After two months of service, the 700-car train was traveling so fast that it arrived at its destination an hour before its departure. Finally, the train took off so fast that it rushed into outer space, and for all is known, it is still traveling through space. When the hobos learned of this train, they called her the Wabash Cannonball and said that every station in America had heard her whistle.

Wabash Cannonball by Roy Acuff record label

Country singer Roy Acuff recorded “Wabash Cannonball” in 1936. His version is reported to be one of the fewer than 40 all-time singles to have sold greater than 10 million physical copies.

“Wabash Cannonball” is a signature song of the Indiana State University Marching Sycamores and the Purdue All-American Marching Band. Both campuses are adjacent to the Mighty Wabash River. It is also associated with the Stephen F. Austin State University Lumberjack Marching Band, the Texas Tech University Goin’ Band from Raiderland, and the University of Texas Longhorn Band. “Wabash Cannonball” is known as the unofficial “second” fight song of Kansas State University, having been played since the late 1960s. It was the only piece of sheet music rescued from the KSU music department in a fire in 1968. It was also used as the theme song by USS Wabash.

What does this particular train song have to do with baseball? Here’s what: Baseball Hall of Famer, Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean, who had had a colorful career pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, among other teams, often sang verses of the song while broadcasting the Major League Baseball Game of the Week in the 1950s and early 1960s.

“The Wabash Cannonball” is included on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list, and is the oldest song on that list.

The Wabash Cannonball was the name of a (now-defunct) roller coaster at Opry Land USA in Nashville.

And in what is truly a case of life imitating art: While there was never a real-life Wabash Cannonball, in the wake of the song’s popularity, the Wabash Railroad renamed its daytime express run between Detroit and St. Louis as the Wabash Cannon Ball in 1949, the only actual train to bear the name, which it carried until the creation of Amtrak in 1971.

Though the recollection is vague, I’m pretty sure the first time I heard the song was when “Cousin Ernie” (Tennessee Ernie Ford) came to visit the Ricardos in New York and performed a solo on their living room sofa during an episode of I Love Lucy.

“Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar”

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Rock_Island_and_Pacific_Railroad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_Cannonball

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._P._Carter

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=wabash+cannonball+lyrics

All photos sourced from internet searches, none belong to the author.

Take Me Right Back to the Track, Jack!

January 6, 2020 / C R Burgan

“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, rail travel was still king. Passengers could criss-cross the vast country on any number of legendary routes, such as: 20th Century Limited, Knickerbocker & Empire State Express, all operated by New York Central Railroad out of Grand Central Station in Manhattan; Empire Builder, operated by Great Northern Railroad, connecting Chicago to Portland & Seattle in the West; Sunset Limited, running between New Orleans & Los Angeles on Southern Pacific’s line; and Chesapeake & Ohio’s flagship, George Washington, which bridged Cincinnati, with Washington D.C. & Newport News, Virginia. Travelers could ride in air-conditioned comfort aboard George Pullman’s namesake carriages, waited on by liveried “Pullman Porters”, arriving at journey’s end refreshed and unhurried.

There was, at the time, no finer way to travel, but times were changing. Soon airliners would drastically cut the amount of time it took to reach far-flung destinations. The post-war Baby Boom would see the growth of suburban communities, making automobile travel a necessity for many new families. And the 1950s would bring the creation of the Interstate Highway System. The heyday of American rail travel would eventually become history.

Other cultural changes were afoot as well in post-war America, most notably in popular music. The big bands of the 30s & 40s were now giving way to smaller groups, with the rhythm section becoming the more prominent feature. One of the artists having the greatest success breaking away from the larger pop orchestras of the swing era was Louis Jordan.

Louis Thomas Jordan was born on July 8, 1908, in Brinkley, Arkansas, where his father, James Aaron Jordan, was a prominent music teacher and bandleader. Under his father’s tutelage, he would learn to play clarinet, piano, and all forms of saxophone. Although early on he played piano professionally, alto saxophone would eventually become his main instrument.

In late 1936 Jordan was invited to join Chick Webb’s orchestra, based at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City. Webb, who had a physical disability, was a gifted musician, but not a great showman. Jordan, a very talented singer with a comedic flair, gained great confidence while working with Webb, and was often mistaken as the band’s leader. After a couple of years with the orchestra, and yearning to break out on his own, he was fired by Webb for trying to persuade Ella Fitzgerald (the Webb Orchestra’s female singer) to join his new band.

With his band, The Tympany Five, Jordan would shortly find himself at the forefront of a new wave of popular music that became known as jive or jump blues. Essentially a hybrid of jazz, blues & boogie-woogie, jump blues was an up-tempo, dance-oriented blend that became favored by a new generation of popular music lovers. Performed by smaller groups, based around rhythm sections of piano, bass & drums, this music would prove to be the forerunner to rock ‘n’ roll. Indeed, in a Tonight Show appearance in 1987, Chuck Berry would acknowledge that Louis Jordan was his main inspiration; this led to Jordan’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he is described as “the Father of Rhythm & Blues” and “the Grandfather of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

“Gonna settle down by the railroad track
Live the life of Riley in the beaten-down shack
So when I hear a whistle I can peek through the crack
And watch the train a-rolling when it’s balling the jack
I just love the rhythm of the clickity-clack
So, take me right back to the track, Jack!” – Choo Choo Ch’boogie (Darling/ Gabler/ Vaughn)

In late 1942 Jordan and his band would relocate to Los Angeles, where in addition to playing major venues up & down the coast, he would begin making “soundies”, an early precursor of modern music videos. Throughout the 1940s he would record for Decca Records, where he would find his greatest success as a recording artist and would become known as “King of the Jukebox”. Although he wrote or co-wrote many of his most notable tracks, in 1946 he released “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”, written by Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, and Milt Gabler. The side was produced by Gabler, then vice-president of Decca Records, who just a few years later would produce Bill Haley’s seminal anthem, “Rock Around the Clock”. Bill Haley would also go on to record “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”, as a tribute to Louis Jordan.

Choo Choo Ch'Boogie by Bill Haley record label

The record was one of the biggest hits of Jordan’s career. A “smash” with both black & white audiences, the record peaked at number seven on the national chart. Although the song’s authors wrote mainly for country and western artists, Jordan’s version provided an important link between country & blues: a veritable prototype for the style of music that would become known as “rock and roll”.

“You reach your destination, but alas and alack!
You need some compensation to get back in the black
You take your morning paper from the top of the stack
And read the situation from the front to the back
The only job that’s open needs a man with a knack
So put it right back in the rack, Jack!” – Choo Choo Ch’boogie (Darling/ Gabler/ Vaughn)

For contemporary audiences “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” offers an exuberantly nostalgic look at train travel in the middle part of the 20th century. The song’s up-tempo buoyancy belies the vexation likely experienced by the narrator in verse two as he peruses the help wanted listings and finds nothing for which he believes himself to be qualified; a familiar predicament for many soldiers returning home after serving their country during World War II. And yet the recording expresses a joy and optimism that was shared by many as the US bounded into a new era, with promises of numerous social and cultural changes; and a beat that, while reminiscent of historic train travel, surely heralded the advent of a brand new genre of music.

“Take me right back to the track, Jack!”

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choo_Choo_Ch%27Boogie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Jordan

https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/louis-jordan

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author

Will There Be Any Freight Trains in Heaven?

December 23, 2019 / C R Burgan

“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, the first known use of the word hobo was in 1888; they also report that the origin of the word is unknown. Other sources suggest that hobo may have derived from the English word hawbuck, which means “country bumpkin”, or from the common working man’s greeting during the time of the building of the railroads, “Ho, beau!” Others theorize that it stems from hoe-boy, meaning “farmhand”, or is an abbreviation of “homeward bound.” It could also be an abbreviation of “homeless boy.”

Merriam-Webster lists synonyms for hobo as bindlestiff, bum, tramp, vagabond, vagrant. Another source describes a hobo as a migrant worker or homeless vagrant, especially one who is impoverished, but makes the distinction that a “tramp” works only when forced to, and a “bum” does not work at all.

Merriam-Webster also lists hobo as an intransitive verb, meaning: to live or travel in the manner of a hobo.

Sources may differ on the definition of what a hobo is, or from where the designation originated, but there is no doubt that popular culture over the past century has left us with vivid images of hoboes.

Even those who do not recognize the name of Emmett Kelly would likely be familiar with the visage of his clown character “Weary Willie”, which he based on images of Depression-era hoboes. Charlie Chaplin created his own iconic character, mostly by accident, which became known as “The Tramp”. And who hasn’t dressed for Halloween in over-sized and worn-out clothes, carrying a bindle stick over their shoulder? But are these accurate portrayals of real hoboes or simply caricatures from a bygone era?

“There’s a Master up yonder in heaven
Got a place that we might call our home
Will we have to work for a living
Or can we continue to roam” – Hobo’s Meditation (Rodgers)

No one can be exactly certain when hobos began riding the rails. At the end of the American Civil War many soldiers discharged from duty began “hopping” freight trains to return to their homes and families. Men who were looking for work or just a new adventure began catching trains westward toward the American frontier.

In 1906, after an exhaustive study, Professor Layal Shafee put the number of tramps in the US at about a half-million (about 0.6% of the US population at the time). His article “What Tramps Cost Nation” was published by The New York Telegraph in 1911, when he estimated the number had surged to 700,000.

In the Great Depression era of the 1930s the number of hoboes grew sharply. Having no work at home, men took to riding the rails for free, hoping to find better opportunities elsewhere.

The Autobiography of a Super-tramp book cover

Life on the rails was dangerous. British poet W.H. Davies, author of The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, lost a foot when he fell under the wheels trying to jump aboard a train. It was easy to be trapped between cars, and one could freeze to death in bad weather. Besides the physical danger of climbing on and off moving freight trains, hoboes often found themselves stranded in desolate places, with no food or water, rarely knowing whom they could trust, and always having to be on the lookout for railroad security staff, nicknamed “bulls”, for their frequently violent treatment of freeloaders.

“Will the hobo chum with the rich man
Will we always have money to spare
Will they have respect for the hobo
In that land that lies hidden up there” – Hobo’s Meditation (Rodgers)

Jimmie Rodgers, having grown up around railroading, and later working on the railroads himself, encountered many a hobo in his short lifetime, and even spent a little time riding the rails himself. He celebrated these men and their vagabond lifestyle in the lyrics of a number of his songs.

Same Train, A Different Time, by Merle Haggard - album cover

In 1968 Merle Haggard set about recording a tribute album to Jimmie Rodgers, who was one of his favorite artists. Released in the spring of the following year, Same Train, A Different Time (Merle Haggard Sings the Great Songs of Jimmie Rodgers) topped the country music charts without the benefit of a hit single. In between several of the album’s tracks Haggard included spoken word introductions, providing details of Rodgers’ life and the context of some of his compositions. Not surprisingly, much of Haggard’s narration speaks to Rodgers’ relationship with the hobo.

From “Narration #1”:

“Most of Jimmy’s in-person performances were in the area from Texas, east; and it was in this area that he knew the railroads and the railroaders, and the bums who rode the rods.

“Jimmy had a special feeling for the hobo and he was always good for a touch by one of the ‘knights of the road.’ He knew their problems and he knew them well, because Jimmy Rodgers had hoboed many of the mainlines himself.” Same Train, A Different Time (Merle Haggard Sings the Great Songs of Jimmie Rodgers)

From “Narration #4”:

“The hobo is a recurring subject in Jimmy Rodgers’ songs. Hoboing was an accepted form of travel for the migrant worker, or for the unemployed who simply wanted a change of weather. During the period of Jimmy’s greatest popularity, you could set your watch by the highball of any train.

“Hoboing was an inexpensive, almost sure way of getting from one place to another, and during the Depression it was not unusual to see, oh, maybe half a hundred ‘boes jump from a train just as it came into the outskirts of a city. They’d jump off as soon as they could so as to ditch the train “bulls” of the coming yard.

“But many quite respectable men found it convenient to hop trains also and many of ‘em died; identified only as a railroad bum . . .” – Same Train, A Different Time (Merle Haggard Sings the Great Songs of Jimmie Rodgers)

Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris - Trio album cover

While many songwriters have paid tribute to the hobo and the hobo lifestyle, probably none have done so more thoroughly than Jimmie Rodgers. One of my favorite Rodgers tunes is “Hobo’s Meditation”, which Merle Haggard covered well on his Same Train album. But another endearing version of that song can be found on the 1987 Warner Bros. Records release, Trio, featuring Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.

“Will there be any freight trains in heaven
Any boxcars in which we might hide
Will there be any tough cops or brakemen
Will they tell us that we cannot ride” – Hobo’s Meditation (Rodgers)

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hobo#h1

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

You Don’t Need No Ticket

December 9, 2019 / C R Burgan

“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 know that. They needed it. Some people were so low that they had to look up to see the ground. Where were they living? On the other side of the tracks. But what will God do? God will build a bridge over the tracks for me to get across”. – Rev Earnest Palmer – Deep South, by Paul Theroux

Curtis Mayfield was born on June 3, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. One of five children, Mayfield’s father left the family when Curtis was five. His mother (and maternal grandmother) moved the family into several Chicago public housing projects before settling into Cabrini–Green during his teen years. His mother taught him to play piano, and he was encouraged by his mother and grandmother to embrace gospel music. One of his earliest experiences performing was with the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers at this aunt’s church.

In 1956, Mayfield joined his high school friend Jerry Butler’s group, The Roosters, to which he contributed his own original compositions. Two years later the group became The Impressions. With a varying lineup of members, The Impressions had a number of hits in the early 1960s, including their recording of “Amen”, an updated version of the old gospel tune, which was included on the soundtrack of the Sidney Poitier film, Lilies of the Field. The Impressions would reach the height of their popularity in the mid–to- late 60s with a string of Mayfield compositions that included “Keep On Pushing”, “It’s All Right”, the up-tempo “Talking about My Baby”, “Woman’s Got Soul” and “People Get Ready”.

“People, get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board” – People Get Ready (Mayfield)

“People Get Ready”, the title track of The Impressions’ album, People Get Ready, eventually became the group’s biggest hit. Released in 1965, it peaked at number 3 on the Billboard R&B Chart and number 14 on the Billboard Pop Chart. Mayfield said he originally wrote the song in response to both the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the deadly church bombing of Bloody Sunday in Birmingham. Martin Luther King Jr. chose “People Get Ready” as the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement and often used the song to get people marching or to calm and comfort them.

Robert F. Darden, a contributor to the Dallas News, comments about Mayfield’s song: “The allusion to the railroad is no accident. It immediately resonates not just with the spirituals, but with older blues songs as well, where references to trains quickly show up in the lyrics. A host of writers have noted, during the Civil War and Reconstruction, railroads still evoked awe and wonder among African Americans in the South. The unofficial pathways to freedom in the North were called the Underground Railroad, where passengers were summoned by the spiritual ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’. And when freedom did come, those still-magical vehicles enabled the formerly enslaved people to join in the Great Migration north”.

“All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don’t need no ticket
You just thank the Lord” – People Get Ready (Mayfield)

According to Curtis Mayfield’s son Todd, their ancestors had been enslaved in Louisiana and carried their stories with them on the Illinois Central Railroad to the South Side projects of Chicago. Mayfield’s grandmother, Annie Bell, was a devoutly religious woman and encouraged her grandson’s love of music, especially gospel. Mayfield himself says that “People Get Ready” probably came from the subconscious “preachings of my grandmothers and most ministers when they reflect from the Bible.”

Social commentator Juan Williams has been quoted as saying, “The train that is coming in the song speaks to a chance for redemption – the long sought chance to rise above racism, to stand apart from despair and any desire for retaliation – an end to the cycle of pain.”

Music critic Stanley Crouch wrote, “by saying, ‘There’s a train a-comin’, get ready,’ that was like saying, OK, so regardless of what happens, get yourself together for this because you are going to get a chance. Your chance is coming.”

“Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There’s hope for all
Among those loved the most” – People Get Ready (Mayfield)

Robert F. Darden also writes, “’People Get Ready’ has been interpreted as both an allusion to the religious apocalypse known as the second coming in many Christian denominations and as a warning to those who oppose equality and civil rights in the modern day. And, as is the case with the best songwriters, both interpretations can be right”.

“There ain’t no room
For the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind
Just to save his own

“Have pity on those
Whose chances are thinner
‘Cause there’s no hiding place
From the kingdom’s throne” – People Get Ready (Mayfield)

Curtis Mayfield’s song has stood the test of time. In 2000 it was chosen by a panel of 20 songwriters – including Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson – as among the top 10 songs of all time. They ranked it at number nine. In 2004, Rolling Stone placed it at number 24 in its 500 greatest hits of all time, and also placed it at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The song was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. “People Get Ready” was named as one of the Top 10 Best Songs of All Time by Mojo music magazine, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2016, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its “cultural, historic, or artistic significance”. It has been recorded and performed by dozens of artists.

Singer Curtis Mayfield (L) poses with the first annual Soul Train Quincy Jones Award for outstanding career achievement. /Photo by Fred Prouser REUTERS REUTERS

In August 1990, Curtis Mayfield was injured when lighting equipment fell on him during an outdoor concert in Brooklyn. Paralyzed from the neck down, and no longer able to play the guitar, he continued composing, singing and recording music. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in of March 1999. He died from complications of type 2 diabetes on December 26, 1999.

Todd Mayfield, who is his father’s biographer, writes, “Though he isn’t here, my father is still part of that fight. His music speaks as powerfully to the times we live in as it did to his own. His songs remain vital, uncompromising, and true. His message endures — a message he refused to abandon even in the darkest of times. If he were alive today, he’d urge us to keep on pushing, to never give up, to get ready for something better. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.”

“So people get ready
For the train a-comin‘
You don’t need no ticket
You just get on board” – People Get Ready (Mayfield) © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Mayfield

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Get_Ready

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_(music)

https://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brown/folkexpression.htm –

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2015/08/folklore-of-trains-in-usa-part-two/

https://www.hopechannel.com/au/read/people-get-ready

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

The Quickest Way to Harlem

November 25, 2019 / C R Burgan

“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 the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, its history has been defined by a number of socio-economic cycles that have each brought a significant shift in population.

During the American Revolution, the British burned Harlem to the ground. It was slowly rebuilt through the late eighteenth & early nineteenth centuries but experienced a boom shortly following the Civil War, as middle & upper-middle-class families sought to escape the increasing congestion found in lower Manhattan neighborhoods.

In the late nineteenth century, the middle-class Anglo families continued migrating northward as greater numbers of Italian and Jewish immigrants moved into Harlem; while the area’s economic growth was spurred by the New York and Harlem Railroad, the Interborough Rapid Transit and elevated railway lines, which connected Harlem to lower and midtown Manhattan.

The industrialization of the early twentieth century drew people in ever-growing numbers away from rural areas and into cities, lured by the promise of steady work and a better quality of life. Prior to the Civil War, the majority of African-Americans had been enslaved and lived in the south, but as traditional farm work there became increasingly more mechanized, blacks moved north in ever greater numbers to secure jobs and to escape the racism & segregation prevalent in southern states.

World War I brought even greater opportunities for black laborers, as the draft pulled young men into the war in Europe, leaving many industries thinly staffed. Harlem became a destination for migrants from around the country, attracting both people from the South in search of jobs, and an educated class who made the area a center of culture, in turn creating a “Negro” middle class. In 1910, Harlem was about 10% black; by 1930, it had reached 70%.

During the “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s, one area of the neighborhood – its highest point – became a particularly desirable place of residence for wealthy African Americans. Known as Sugar Hill for being reflective of the “sweet life”, the immaculate row houses there were occupied by the likes of W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Cab Calloway and perhaps the greatest icon of 20th-century American music: Duke Ellington.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, to James Edward Ellington and Daisy (Kennedy) Ellington in Washington, D.C. Both parents were pianists, with Daisy (the daughter of a former American slave) primarily playing parlor songs and James preferring operatic arias. Edward began piano lessons at the age of seven, and Daisy always strove to surround her son with dignified people to help reinforce his manners, and teach him to live elegantly. His childhood friends, conscious of his refined mien, easy grace, and dapper style of dress, which lent him the bearing of a young nobleman, began referring to him as “Duke”.

In the summer of 1914 Ellington took a job working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café. It was there that he composed his first tune, “Soda Fountain Rag”. Not yet having learned to read & write music, he created the tune by ear, and would play it as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango and fox trot. Ellington recalled, “Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire”. Later in his teens he would begin assembling groups to play for dances, and in 1919 he met drummer Sonny Greer, who encouraged Ellington’s ambition to be a professional musician.

When Sonny Greer was offered a prestigious gig in New York City, Ellington chose to leave Washington, D. C. and followed Greer north. Settling in Harlem, Ellington was soon playing all the major clubs, including the Exclusive Club, the Hollywood Club, the Kentucky Club, and in 1927, after King Oliver turned down an extended booking at the Cotton Club, Ellington was recommended for the spot. With trumpeter Bubber Miley in his band, it was during this period that Ellington & his group would begin experimenting with different sounds – including Miley’s “growling” trumpet – that led contemporaries to refer to their music as “Jungle Style”. A month after accepting the Cotton club engagement Ellington and Orchestra, now eleven pieces, recorded several tunes, one of which, “Creole Love Call”, became a worldwide hit.

Not only had Duke Ellington proved to be an integral figure in the black “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s, but after embarking on several European tours with his orchestra during the 1930s, he had become a world-class musical artist, as well. Later in the decade, though, competition was heating up as swing bands began receiving popular attention. While Ellington’s band could certainly swing, it had become known more for its compositional styling. Not one to shrink from a challenge, Ellington remarked, “Jazz is music, swing is business”.

Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club Orchestra

Billy Strayhorn, initially hired as a lyricist in 1939, soon became an indispensable member of the Ellington organization. A classically trained musician, Strayhorn was soon contributing original lyrics & music, as well as arranging & polishing Ellington’s compositions. Ellington would speak glowingly of his collaborative working relationship with Strayhorn, saying, “my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine”. After an ASCAP ruling in 1940 made it prohibitive for Ellington to play his old tunes for radio broadcast, he turned to Billy Strayhorn, and his son Mercer Ellington, both associated with licensing organization BMI, to write a whole new book for the band.

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn — Duke with Billy Strayhorn (l)

One of the many compositions Strayhorn contributed to the new Ellington Orchestra repertoire was “Take the ‘A’ Train”. It was Mercer who discovered a discarded draft of the tune in a wastebasket, where Strayhorn had tossed it, believing it sounded too much like a Fletcher Henderson arrangement. Before long “Take the ‘A’ Train” would become the band’s theme song, replacing “East St. Louis Toodle-oo”. Originally the song had no lyrics, but a young woman from Detroit named Joya Sherrill wrote out words while she listened to the song on the radio. When her words were brought to the attention of Ellington, he adopted her lyrics for the song and offered her a job as vocalist in his band.

“Hurry, get on, now it`s coming
Listen to those rails a-thrumming” – Take the “A” Train (Strayhorn)

The title of the song refers to the “A” subway line that connects Brooklyn to Harlem. When Billy Strayhorn was offered a job by Duke Ellington in 1939, Ellington sent him travel expenses, plus directions to reach his home by subway once he arrived in Manhattan from his home in Philadelphia. The directions began: “Take the ‘A’ Train”. The most well-known version of the song was recorded by the Ellington Orchestra in 1941, with Ray Nance’s trumpet solo becoming so identifiable, that it is often copied note for note when performed by other artists. In 1999, National Public Radio included “Take the ‘A’ Train” in the NPR 100, in which NPR’s music editors sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century. The song has been recorded and performed by numerous artists.

Duke Ellington died in 1974, shortly after his 75th birthday, from lung cancer & pneumonia. His list of awards & honors is extensive, including 14 Grammy Awards (24 nominations), Pulitzer Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom (highest US civilian award), Legion of Honor (highest French civilian award), Honorary Ph.D. from Berklee College of Music, as well as numerous others. In 1986 he was honored with a US Postage stamp bearing his likeness, and in 2009 a US quarter was issued honoring Mr. Ellington, making him the first African American to appear by himself on a circulating US coin.

Duke Ellington on US Postal Service 22 cent stamp

In 1989, historian and author, Gunther Schuller wrote:
Ellington composed incessantly to the very last days of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his total life and his commitment to it was incomparable and unalterable. In jazz, he was a giant among giants. And in twentieth-century music, he may yet one day be recognized as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time.

“If you miss the ‘A’ train
You`ll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem” – Take the “A” Train (Strayhorn) © EMI Music Publishing

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_the_%22A%22_Train

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Strayhorn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Hill,_Manhattan

https://www.elegran.com/blog/2013/07/in-the-heart-of-harlems-renaissance-sugar-hill

All photos were sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

Good Mornin’ America

November 11, 2019 / C R Burgan

“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 when he was approached by an unknown songwriter who asked if Guthrie would listen to his songs. Guthrie replied that if the man would buy him a beer he would listen just as long as it took him to finish that beer. The song that caught his attention that night was about a train.

When Arlo admitted that he liked the tune, the author begged him to, “give that one to Johnny Cash for me.” But claiming that Cash wasn’t interested in it, Guthrie went on to record “City of New Orleans” for himself in 1972 and peaking at #4 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and #18 on the Hot 100 chart, it would prove to be Guthrie’s only top-40 hit.

“All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields” – City of New Orleans (Goodman)

“City Of New Orleans” was composed by Chicago singer-songwriter Steve Goodman in 1970. While traveling to visit his wife’s grandmother, he noted the things that he saw outside his carriage window, jotting down notes as his wife slept during the journey. Everything that he described in the song’s lyrics actually happened during the train ride.

City of New Orleans - Illinois Central Railroad

When he returned home he learned that the eponymous train on which he had ridden, operated by Illinois Central Railroad, was scheduled to be decommissioned due to lack of riders. Feeling encouraged to use his song in an effort to save the train, he polished the tune and recorded it for his debut album in 1971.

City of New Orleans, by Steve Goodman. Buddah Records label.

“Passin’ trains that have no names
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles” – City of New Orleans (Goodman)

City of New Orleans train route map. — City of New Orleans route

Illinois Central Railroad had begun operating the City of New Orleans in April 1947. The overnight train had the longest regularly scheduled route in the country for a time; carrying passengers from Chicago, Illinois, through the heartland of the country, and down to New Orleans, Louisiana. With declining ridership due to competition from automobile and airplane travel, the route soon went the way of so many famed lines of the 20^th Century. In May 1971, Amtrak assumed operation of US train passenger service. The City of New Orleans was then converted to a nighttime route and renamed the Panama Limited.

“Good morning America how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done” – City of New Orleans (Goodman)

While Goodman’s recording of his own song found moderate success, it was Guthrie’s version that popularized the refrain, “Good Morning America, how are ya?” When ABC television launched a new morning show in 1975, they called it: Good Morning America, and due to the popularity of the song during the 1970s, Amtrak chose to capitalize on the recognition, renaming the route City of New Orleans in 1981.

City of New Orleans, by Arlo Guthrie. Reprise Records label.

Steve Goodman died on September 20, 1984, at the age of 36 after a long battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Also that year Willie Nelson covered “City of New Orleans”, making it the title track of his album. Nelson’s version was a #1 Country hit and won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Being a songwriting category, the Grammy was posthumously awarded to Goodman.

“And the sons of Pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father’s magic carpet made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep
Rockin’ to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel” – City of New Orleans (Goodman)

A number of years ago I had the opportunity to work security at an Arlo Guthrie show being presented at Peninsula Temple Beth El, in San Mateo, California. This was a small, intimate setting for Arlo & his band, which was largely comprised of his family members. They performed within the sanctuary to a packed house. Although my main responsibility was to keep watch around the property’s perimeter, and parking area, I tried to at least be inside for a portion of the show.

Arlo Guthrie picture as an older man. — Arlo Guthrie

I couldn’t claim to have a vast knowledge of Guthrie’s music, nor had I ever seen him perform previously, but “City of New Orleans”, and specifically his recording of the song, had long been a favorite train song of mine; probably my favorite train song.

Knowing that this song would likely be performed towards the end of the show I took an opportunity to quietly steal in through a rear entrance. I couldn’t see much, but I could hear. And what I heard was rapt silence, as the singer and consummate performer held the audience in the palm of his hand. He prefaced the song he had made famous – his sole top-40 hit – by saying that he had once been admonished that every great folk singer needs a train song in his repertoire and this one he had adopted as his. The song was well received by the audience who responded with thunderous applause, as I returned to perimeter duty, having witnessed a seasoned song man & story-teller deliver a rousing rendition of a song with which he had become indelibly connected, and that he had truly made his own.

“Goodnight, America . . .

This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues” – City of New Orleans (Goodman)

City of New Orleans, by Arlo Guthrie; 45 rpm sleeve — Arlo Guthrie 45 rpm sleeve

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_New_Orleans_(song)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_New_Orleans_(train)

https://www.arloguthrie.com/about

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlo_Guthrie

http://www.stevegoodman.net/bio.html

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author

Train I Ride

October 28, 2019 / C R Burgan

“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 to hard work. Though his parents owned their farm, it was heavily mortgaged, and everyone in the family was expected to do their share to keep the enterprise solvent. It was in the fields that young Sam was first exposed to the work songs of the black laborers, leaving a lasting impression on his mind.

Music was always a part of Sam’s life. He played sousaphone, trombone and drums in high school, where he conducted the school’s marching band; yet he never imagined that music would be his vocation. He has been quoted as saying that as a youth he desired to be a criminal defense lawyer, “because I saw so many people, especially black people, railroaded”.

A defining moment in Phillip’s life came in 1939, when the family was travelling together to Dallas, and made a stop in Memphis. Arriving in the middle of the night, in a pouring rain, 16 year old Sam was able to sneak away to Beale Street, where he was captivated by the lights and music, finding the street alive with people. It was this experience that would prove to be a foreshadowing of his life’s work.

Beale Street yesterday
. . . and today

Bankrupted by the Great Depression, Sam Phillip’s father died in 1941, forcing Sam to leave school to care for his mother and aunt. He worked a succession of jobs, including as a disc jockey at radio station WLAY in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he met his future wife, Rebecca Burns. Sam married “Becky” in 1943 – a union that would produce two children – and remained married for 60 years, until his death in 2003.

The impression that Memphis had left upon Phillips as a teenager would eventually draw him and his wife to the city in the mid 1940s, where he would spend four years working as an announcer and sound engineer at radio station WREC. It was there that Sam began experimenting with microphone placement and other new recording techniques to enhance the sound of live performances that the station would record for future broadcast. This experience would prove consequential in Sam’s future recording endeavors.

On January 3, 1950, Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service in a former auto repair shop located at 706 Union Ave. Getting started was a challenge for the aspiring entrepreneur, and to bring in business he was known to record conventions, weddings, choirs, funerals, or anything else that created revenue. He operated the venture with an open door policy, allowing anyone to, for a small fee, make their own record. The studio’s slogan was, “We Record Anything, Anywhere, Anytime.”

B B King
Junior Parker
Howlin’ Wolf

His willingness to work with amateurs enabled Phillips to make the first recordings of artists such as B. B. King, Junior Parker and Howlin’ Wolf. While he recorded many different styles of music, his first love was the blues. He was quoted as saying, “The blues, it got people—black and white—to think about life, how difficult, yet also how good it can be. They would sing about it; they would pray about it; they would preach about it. This is how they relieved the burden of what existed day in and day out.”

Sun Records — 706 Union Ave, Memphis, TN

At the time, recordings by black artists had only recently begun being referred to as “rhythm & blues” releases, as opposed to “race” records, and while there were some artists who were known for their ability to cross over to the pop charts, it was more common for white artists to record their own versions of black hits. Sam Phillips felt that this practice left most of the songs sounding bland and watered down.

Marion Keisker, Phillips’ receptionist stated, “Over and over I remember Sam saying, ‘If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.'” In his book, Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll, author Peter Gurlanick writes, “[Phillips] didn’t believe in luck necessarily, but the moon had to be in the right place, the wind had to be blowing in the right direction. . . . He just hoped he would still be in business when that day finally arrived.”

That day finally arrived for Phillips in 1953, when a young Elvis Presley – barely eighteen years old – walked through the doors of Memphis Recording Service, ready to pay his four dollars to record a song or two for his mother. Phillips saw (and heard) in Presley, exactly what he had been searching for. Elvis was listening to all the stuff that Phillips was recording: B. B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Ike Turner; and he believed that with a little coaching Elvis could be that crossover artist who could bring African-American music to a white audience. Signing Elvis Presley to a recording contract for his Sun Records label, Phillips cut a number of sides for the singer during the period 1954 -55, one of those tracks being “Mystery Train”, which was originally released as the “B” side of Elvis’ version of “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”.

“Train I ride, sixteen coaches long
Train I ride, sixteen coaches long
Well, that long black train got my baby and gone” – Mystery Train

Written by Junior Parker, “Mystery Train” had been recorded & produced by Sam Phillips in 1953, and released by Sun Records as a single for Little Junior’s Blue Flames. Performed by Parker in the style of a rhythm & blues number, the song featured lyrics similar to those found in the Carter Family’s “Worried Man Blues”, which was based on an old Celtic ballad.

Sam Phillips, Elvis, Marion Keisker
Sam & Elvis

Presley’s Sun Records recording of “Mystery Train” – featuring Elvis on vocals & rhythm guitar, Scotty Moore on lead guitar, and Bill Black on bass – went on to become an early rockabilly standard, with Moore claiming to have borrowed the guitar riff from Junior Parker’s “Love My Baby” (the “B” side to Parker’s recording of “Mystery Train”).

Having acquired the song with the purchase of Presley’s contract, RCA Victor re-released the recording in November of 1955, when it peaked at number 11 on Billboard’s Country Chart, making Elvis a nationally-known country music star. Now considered an “enduring classic”, the song has been ranked by Rolling Stone Magazine at #77 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; ranked the third most acclaimed song of 1955, by Acclaimed Music; inspired Jim Jarmusch’s 1989 independent film Mystery Train, as well as Greil Marcus’ widely lauded book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music.

Note: In 1986 Sam Phillips was part of the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was the first non-performer inducted. In 1987, he was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. He received a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1991. In 1998, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame; in October 2001 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; and in 2012 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

“Train, train, comin’ ‘round the bend
Train, train, comin’ ‘round the bend
Well, it took my baby, but it never will again . . .” – Mystery Train

Sources:

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2016/januaryfebruary/statement/the-birth-rock-%E2%80%98n%E2%80%99-roll-found-sam-phillips%E2%80%99s-sun-records

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Train

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Phillips

All photos sourced from internet searches, none belong to the author.

I Hear the Train A-Comin’

October 14, 2019 / C R Burgan

“I hear the train a-comin’, it’s rolling ’round the bend
And I ain’t been kissed lord since I don’t know when
The boys in Crescent City don’t seem to know I’m here
That lonesome whistle seems to tell me, Sue, disappear” – Crescent City Blues (Gordon Jenkins)

“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. The song’s distinctive boom-chicka-boom rhythm fairly set the tone for what would become Cash’s signature sound, with even the most casual music fan capable of identifying the song after just a couple notes of that unmistakable electric guitar intro played by Luther Perkins. And what I know as a working musician is that playing “Folsom” is a surefire way to fill the dance floor, with folks immediately deserting their chairs after those first telltale notes ring out. 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.

“When I was just a baby my mama told me, Sue
When you’re grown up I want that you should go and see and do
But I’m stuck in Crescent City just watching life mosey by
When I hear that whistle blowin’, I hang my head and cry” – Crescent City Blues (Jenkins)

“Crescent City Blues”, is a song written by composer/arranger Gordon Jenkins. In 1953 the song was included on an album entitled Seven Dreams, released by Decca Records, where Jenkins was the label’s musical director. As the title implies, the experimental concept album consisted of seven radioplay-style musical segments named for their protagonists, where the characters have embarked on a train trip from New York to New Orleans. The “Second Dream” was entitled “The Conductor”, and featured the voice-over work of bassist Bill Lee (Spike Lee’s father), and Thurl Ravenscroft (Tony the Tiger). On the track, as the train makes an unscheduled stop, the title character steps off the train for “a breath of middle-western air”. He then describes how as he lit a cigarette he “heard a voice from the shack across the way”.

“I see the rich folks eatin’ in that fancy dining car
They’re probably having pheasant breast and eastern caviar
Now I ain’t crying envy and I ain’t crying me
It’s just that they get to see things that I’ve never seen” – Crescent City Blues (Jenkins)

The song, with a melody inspired by the 1930s instrumental, “Crescent City Blues”, by Little Brother Montgomery, is sung by Beverly Mahr. Mahr was Jenkins second wife, and mother of their son, Bruce (San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist). Styled as a torch song, the lyrics are delivered in a sultry manner, bearing a strong resemblance to Johnny Mercer’s “Blues in the Night”. It begins with bluesy guitar licks accompanying the vocals, with later verses punctuated by big band horn arrangements. Certainly Jenkins composition would never be mistaken for Cash’s up-tempo rockabilly anthem, but there is absolutely no question as to the genesis of Johnny’s tune.

“If I owned that lonesome whistle, if that railroad train was mine
I bet I’d find a man a little farther down the line
Far from Crescent City is where I’d like to stay
And I’d let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away” – Crescent City Blues (Jenkins)

Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” was released on Sam Phillips’ Sun Records label in December of 1955. Johnny Cash is the only songwriter credited on the release. He claims that he heard “Crescent City Blues” on the radio during his stint in Germany, serving with the US Air Force, and adapted it for his own purposes. In a 1990s interview Cash stated, “At the time, I really had no idea I would be a professional recording artist; I wasn’t trying to rip anybody off”. According to Cash’s manager Lou Robin, Cash had acknowledged the influence of Jenkins’s song, but was reassured by Sam Phillips that he had no reason to fear a plagiarism suit.

In 1968, a live version of the song, from the album At Folsom Prison, was released and the song once again hit the charts, eventually reaching #1 on the country singles chart, and #32 on the Hot 100. It was then that Gordon Jenkins decided to sue for royalties. Reportedly Cash paid Jenkins a cash settlement with some sources naming the amount of $75,000, while others mention $100K. In an interview Cash was quoted as saying, “So when I later went to Sun to record the song, I told Sam Phillips that I rewrote an old song to make my song, and that was that. Sometime later I met up with Gordon Jenkins and we talked about what had happened, and everything was right”.

Sources have stated that Cash & Jenkins agreed to share songwriting credits for the song, but on the Walk the Line soundtrack from the 2005 biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix, Johnny Cash is the sole songwriter credited for “Folsom Prison Blues”. As of May, 2006 the soundtrack was certified platinum by the RIAA with over one million copies sold. That same release went on to win the Grammy award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album.

For years Johnny Cash would open his concerts with “Folsom Prison Blues”, following his trademark introduction of, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”. Clearly this is the song by which Cash wished to be identified. The song has been recorded by numerous other artists, many of which were likely unaware of its origins. In June 2014, Rolling Stone ranked “Folsom” No. 51 on its list of the 100 greatest country songs of all time, with no mention of Gordon Jenkins. Which may only serve to reinforce the words of the great composer Igor Stravinsky, who said,” Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal”.

Decide for yourself:

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent_City_Blues

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/12/15/johnny-cash-gordon-jenkins-dispute-folsom-prison-blues

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folsom_Prison_Blues

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/12/15/johnny-cash-gordon-jenkins-dispute-folsom-prison-blues

All photos sourced from internet searches, none belong to the author.

The Singing Brakeman

October 10, 2019 / C R Burgan

“All around the water tank
Waiting for a train
A thousand miles away from home
Sleeping in the rain” – Waiting for a Train (Jimmie Rodgers) © Peermusic Publishing

Born on September 8, 1897, in Meridian, Mississippi, James Charles Rodgers has become known as “The Father of Country Music”. While he certainly didn’t invent the musical form, Rodgers, along with his contemporaries The Carter Family popularized the genre during the early days of radio and phonograph recordings. Though he also dabbled in folk, blues and jazz, it is for his accomplishments in bringing the traditional, nostalgic music of rural white people in the American South to the attention of a nation that would prove to have a huge appetite for this common strain of musical communication.

Rodgers’ mother died when he was six or seven, and he subsequently spent much of his youth living with various extended family in rural Mississippi & Alabama. Destined to be an entertainer, he had by the age of thirteen already spent time on the road organizing and performing in traveling shows, only to be tracked down and brought home by his father, Aaron Rodgers, a maintenance-of-way foreman on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

His father found young Jimmie his first job working on the railroad as a water boy. It was during this period that he was taught guitar technique by other rail workers and hoboes that he encountered on the job. As a water boy he would also have been exposed to the work chants of black gandy dancers. A few years later, through his older brother, Walter, he became a brakeman on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad.

“I walked up to a brakeman gave him a line of talk
He said if you’ve got money boy I’ll see that you don’t walk
I haven’t got a nickel, not a penny can I show
Get off, get off you railroad bum and he slammed the boxcar door” – Waiting for a Train (Rodgers)

In 1924, at age 27, Rodgers was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After a period the disease would cause him to give up working for the railroad, and he eventually returned to entertaining.

By 1927 Rodgers had returned to Meridian, MS, where he settled in with his wife Carrie and daughter Anita. April of that year found him in Asheville, North Carolina, where he performed on that city’s first radio station, WWNC, which would eventually lead to a weekly radio show for him and a band that he had cobbled together. In July of ’27 Rodgers would make his first recordings for Ralph Peer, a representative of the Victor Talking Machine Company, in Camden, New Jersey. Though success from those initial recordings was modest, he would return to New Jersey in November, armed with original songs co-written with his sister-in-law, Elsie Williams, who would eventually become his most frequent collaborator, writing or co-writing 40 songs for Rodgers.

One of the sides cut during this second series of sessions was “Blue Yodel”, also known as “T for Texas”. Over the next two years it would sell nearly half a million copies, cementing his place as one of the top recording stars of that era.

The next few years found Rodgers continuing to cut new records. He made a movie short for Columbia Pictures, The Singing Brakeman, toured the Midwest with Will Rogers, even made a recording of “Blue Yodel No. 9”, accompanied by Louis Armstrong on trumpet, and his wife, Lil Harden Armstrong on piano.

“He put me off in Texas a state I dearly love
The wide-open spaces all around me the moon and stars up above
Nobody seems to want me or to lend me a helping hand
I’m on my way from Frisco going back to Dixie Land” – Waiting for a Train (Rodgers)

Rodgers died May 26, 1933, at the age of 35, from a pulmonary hemorrhage. At the time of his death his recordings accounted for fully 10% of RCA Victor’s sales, in a market that had been severely impacted by the Great Depression. When the Country Music Hall of Fame was established in 1961, Rodgers was one of the first three inductees, along with music publisher/songwriter Fred Rose and singer/songwriter Hank Williams. Rodgers was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 as an early influence, and inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2013. Merle Haggard recorded a tribute album, Same Train, A Different Time: Merle Haggard Sings The Great Songs of Jimmie Rodgers, while Lynyrd Skynyrd named both Haggard and Rodgers in their song “Railroad Song” (“I’m going to ride this train, Lord, until I find out, what Jimmie Rodgers and the Hag was all about”).

On Haggard’s album, Same Train, A Different Time, in a spoken introduction, the singer refers to Rodgers as “the most important man, who ever sang a country song”.

On May 24, 1978, the United States Postal Service issued a 13-cent commemorative stamp honoring Rodgers, the first in its long-running Performing Arts Series. The stamp depicted him in brakeman’s outfit and guitar, giving his “two thumbs up” (as in one of the famous photos of him), along with a locomotive in silhouette in the background.

Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as Howlin’ Wolf, tried to emulate Rodgers’s yodel, but found that his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl. “I couldn’t do no yodelin’,” Barry Gifford quoted him as saying in Rolling Stone, “so I turned to howlin’. And it’s done me just fine.”

Bob Dylan wrote in the liner notes to a 1997 tribute album: “Jimmie Rodgers, of course, is one of the guiding lights of the twentieth century, whose way with song has always been an inspiration to those of us who have followed the path. … He was a performer of force without precedent with a sound as lonesome and mystical as it was dynamic. He gives hope to the vanquished and humility to the mighty.”

The professional recording & performing career for which Jimmie Rodgers is remembered and revered lasted barely six years, and yet his influence is still felt nearly a century later by those who remain inspired by his musical legacy, and feel driven to pay tribute to the “Singing Brakeman” in their own personal way.

“Though my pocketbook is empty
And my heart is full of pain
I’m a thousand miles away from home
Just a-waiting for a train” – Waiting for a Train (Jimmie Rodgers) © Peermusic Publishing

Sources:

http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/39/jimmie-rodgers-the-father-of-country-music

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Jimmie+Rodgers+%28country+singer%29+%E2%80%93+Wikipedia

All photos sourced through internet searches, unless otherwise noted