Waiting for a train
| Waiting for a train | |
|---|---|
| Jimmie Rodgers | |
| publication | 1929 |
| length | 2:47 |
| Genre (s) | Country music |
| Author (s) | Jimmie Rodgers |
| Cover versions | |
| 1929 | Riley Puckett |
| 1937 | Cliff Carlisle |
| 1946 | Jimmie Davis |
| 1962 | Johnny Cash |
| 1997 | Dickey Betts |
Waiting for a Train is a country song by Jimmie Rodgers recorded on October 22, 1928 and released on February 8, 1929. It is noteworthy as the first use of Rodgers' "Train Whistle Noise", an imitation of the railway signal. Today the song is considered to be one of the greatest classics among Rodgers' songs and especially the Blue Yodeling .
Other artists recorded the song; Immediately after publication, for example, Riley Puckett for Columbia (March 1929). In 1937, Cliff Carlisle's version with changed text appeared under the title Waiting for a Ride . Johnny Cash played him in 1962 for his album Blood, Sweat & Tears and for the album series American Recordings . However, this version was only released posthumously in 2003 on the Unearthed box set .
text
The text probably goes back to a traditional . According to Ralph Peer , Rodgers is said to have received it from a third person whose name was not known. Rodgers is said to have already known the text and only partially adapted it to his melody.
The song is about a migrant worker looking for a ride on his way home to the southern states . He says he is thousands of miles from home and needs to sleep in the rain.
All around the water tanks | Waiting for a train | A thousand miles away from home | Sleeping in the rain
The brakeman helps him, but expects a bribe.
He says if you've got money | I'll see that you don't walk
When it turns out that the protagonist doesn't even have a nickel , the brakeman insults him as a drifting around, chases him out of the luggage cart and dumps him in a deserted area in the middle of Texas. The protagonist complains that nobody is helping him and says that he is very sad.
Nobody seems to want me | Or lend me a helping hand | I'm on my way from Frisco | Going back to Dixieland | My pocketbook is empty | And my heart is filled with pain
Whether he will achieve his goal remains to be seen. Rodgers ends the song on the same lines that he started it with:
I'm a thousand miles away from home | Just waiting for a train .
literature
- Norm Cohen, David Cohen: Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong . University of Illinois Press, 2000, ISBN 0-252-06881-5 , p. 360.
- Bill C. Malone, Judith McCulloh: Stars of Country Music: Uncle Dave Macon to Johnny Rodriguez . University of Illinois Press, 1975, ISBN 0-252-00527-9 , p. 130.