5 Downer Train Songs

On May 10, 1869 a golden spike was laid in Promontory, Utah. It marked the completion of the USA's first transcontinental rail line. Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines united finally by congressional order. The United States would never be the same. Manifest Destiny was now not only possible, but realistic for every American. Trade was facilitated and expansion eased. Not only that, but the line came in ahead of schedule and under budget.

That was largely because of the horrible abuse the train companies laid on their workers. Those laying the rails were subject to inhuman conditions, working through deserts, high mountain passes, blasting through mountains. Scores died from exhaustion, avalanche, explosion or just the cruelty of the company.

That in mind, here's a list of downer songs (at least tangentially) about trains.

Working For The Pullman Company - Otis Taylor
It's a simple Koan: Daddy's gone to Santa Fe / Momma's takin' care of me / He's workin' for / Pullman company / I don't care / I don't care / Just as long as / Daddy comes back to me
The song was developed by Otis Taylor and his daughter/bassist. Written about Otis waiting for his Dad to get home. Sung by a woman who, with a musician for a father, probably wanted nothing more than the same thing. It is direct. It doesn't complicate with flowery metaphors. It allows simple loss and powerful yearning. It's about that chest-emptying desire, that sense of something missing. It's effective and heartfelt and should resonate for those who're familiar with absenteeism.

Train Song - Feist & Ben Gibbard
Vashti Bunyan's original is largely a hopeful piece about the experience of seeing a lover again. Feist and Gibbard throw in a bridge that brings the whole situation into doubt. Is the singer some desperate sucker, the losing side of unrequited love? Or are they just a hopeless worrier? Bunyan's is about knowing... Feist and Gibbard bring a sweaty desperation to it. Anyway, it's infectious and you should totally check out dilly dilly's cover, too.

Marie - Townes Van Zandt
Perhaps the most depressing song I could readily name, Marie follows the the life of a homeless man and his lady. He loses his job on the rail, drinks too much and gets his only means of income (a harmonica) stolen, loses his government assistance and Marie winds up dyin', leaving our titular character alone. Oh, and before she dies, Marie is pregnant. Maybe. I have a theory that she's actually got some horrible cancer and has both the narrator and herself deluded on the idea of a baby. But it's just a theory. The song is simple, structurally, but resonates with such profound empathy that I generally feel awful afterward. But in an addicting sort of way.

Freight Train - Elizabeth Cotten
Elizabeth Cotten is one of the finest pickers of the past 150 years... and she was doing it all wrong. Cotten played the guitar left-handed without restringing it and she did it so beautifully. Her clever bass lines and delicate melodies have influenced generations of musicians. Next time you see Dana Gross play, in fact, ask to hear his version of it. She wrote a song about escaping on a train and asking that her confidante just tell everyone she's dead so no one can bring her back to her rotten existence. And she wrote the friggin' song when she was 11. Noodle that for a minute. When I was eleven I was playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on my friend's SNES. I wrote an article about a kid I sat next to in class farting when I was 11. I was about as close to complex escape fantasies and a hope for something more as I am to flying a battlecopter into a deathmatch with a pteradactyl.

Anyway, it's a brilliant song.

Keep Me In Your Heart - Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon was diagnosed with mesothelioma. In lieu of treatments he feared might weaken him, Zevon recorded an album with his closest musical friends. The Wind is a powerful statement, and the final track, Keep Me In Your Heart, is a touching and simple wish. There is a bareness and sincerity to the track, audible in a slight weakness in Zevon's voice. I just can't imagine knowing that final moment was coming and having the wherewithal to realize all I wanted was to matter to one person. It's staggering and beautiful and heart-wrenching.

PS. There will be more train posts. Oh yes.

Posted by Krister