Rock Island Line (song)
Rock Island Line is the title of a railway song recorded for the first time by Leadbelly , which became a world hit in the version by Lonnie Donegan . The railroad company sung about is the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad .
History of origin
The song was first discovered in 1934 by music researchers Alan and John Lomax during their visits to state prisons in the southern states in search of folk songs. During these trips the blues singer Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter , who had just been released from prison , was the driver of the music researchers in Arkansas from September 1934. Ledbetter heard the song and remembered it; it would become one of his most famous titles and a permanent part of his repertoire. Leadbelly took the title for the first time on June 22, 1937 in Washington DC for the Library of Congress (the US National Library).
Further recordings followed, on June 15, 1940 together with the Golden Gate Quartet and in January 1942 for Moses Asch , the later co-founder of Folkways Records and his New York record label Asch Recordings (# 102) on the single Ol 'Riley / Rock Island Line with a 12-string guitar . The last version is a concert recording from Texas on June 15, 1949.
The song is about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company , which first reached the state of Arkansas in April 1902 when it acquired the majority of three smaller railroad lines there.
success
The song was first played by Lonnie Donegan in 1953 during a concert at London's Royal Festival Hall . In July 1954 it was recorded for the British LP New Orleans Joy by Chris Barber ’s Jazz Band & The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group , which sold 60,000 copies - enormous sales for a debut album at the time.
Donegan's producer required only instrumental tracks for the July 13, 1954 recording session, but the trio recorded two vocal tracks in his absence, one of which was Rock Island Line . He took over Leadbelly's entire arrangement, but increased the pace. The song was released in November 1955 in the UK on Decca Records with B-side John Henry as Lonnie Donegan's first single. Donegan only received £ 50 for the recording session, but no royalties .
When the song aired on the BBC Light program in January 1956 , it sparked the skiffle wave among British teenagers . In the same month he came into the local charts, where he reached eighth place. The title achieved the same placement in the US pop hit parade in March 1956. An infectious rhythm, slow at first and then accelerating like a freight train, dominates the simply orchestrated song. From then on, guitar and banjo were established as a skiffle line-up and a washboard for the rhythm . Initially 700,000 were sold in the USA and 350,000 in Europe. After six months, three million copies were sold. It was the first debut recording by a musician to go gold in the UK.
composer
It is controversial who is eligible for the Rock Island Line composer . Although Ledbetter is associated with the song, he is probably not the originator due to the history of its origin. BMI treats the composition as traditional because it has assigned different work numbers to all arrangers. In particular, Huddie Ledbetter (# 1260902), Joel Newman (# 1260905 for the music publisher Folkways Music Publishers ) and Lonnie Donegan (# 1260911) are registered as composers; the latter received a BMI award for this. The indication on the Donegan record label also speaks in favor of the classification as traditional, while Ledbetter does not indicate the author.
A total of 27 versions of this classic are listed. Important versions are by Louis M. “Grandpa” Jones , who recorded the track on March 14, 1956 ( King Records # 4918). Bobby Darin's first single in April 1956 was Rock Island Line , which he presented on March 10, 1956 on the Dorsey Brothers TV show . A version by Johnny Cash can be found on his LP Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar , released in October 1957 . The title was part of the standard repertoire of the Beatles' predecessor band, the Quarrymen .
The song in the commercial
The song was heard in 2006 in the television commercial for the Opel Astra TwinTop.
Web links
- Lonnie Donegan - Rock Iceland Line - Song Review by Bruce Eder at Allmusic (English)
- Lonnie Donegan's version of the song
- History of origin
swell
- ^ Norm and David Cohen, Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folk Song , 2000, p. 474
- ↑ Charles Wolfe / Kip Lornell, The Life And Legend of Leadbelly , 1999, p 126
- ^ John Shephard, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of The World , Vol. 2, 2003, p. 283
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Arkansas on the Railroad
- ↑ For a musicological analysis of the song, see Dörte Hartwich-Wiechell: Pop-Musik. Analyzes and interpretations . Arno Volk Verlag, Cologne 1974, pp. 74-79
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 88
- ↑ Lonnie Donegan , biography of Bruce Eder, accessed October 18, 2016
- ↑ BMI entry for Rock Island Line ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
