Some technologies transcend the simple nuts and bolts and become something entirely other. Sometimes they become engines of the imagination as well as engines of progress. This is particularly true of the trains, a technology that developed during the time of western expansion in North America. Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy’ explores this thoroughly, with the development of the CPR. Yet, the future of trains would grow as popular culture developed.
Trains and Pop Music Grow Up Together
The influence of trains lasted into the 20th century when droves of workers from the American South migrated north to factory jobs in places like Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit. And from here, songwriters took the train and made it into a metaphor of journeys into the unknown (‘Mystery Train’) as well as journeys to new places full of the hope for opportunity (‘Night Train’). As such, trains and pop music grew up together.
Trains of Hope, of Disappointment
Given that trains in popular song are means of emotional transport as well as physical transport, songwriters have explored the possibilities of human achievement, using the train as a powerful image. Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train” lamented the state of the world, with the hope that vision and compassion would keep us on the course of peace. Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” celebrates modern technology and the hopes of a bright future. Yet trains represent retreat, and disappointment just as well when those hopes don’t pan out, either in a personal bid for success (‘Midnight Train to Georgia’) or in the continuation of a way of life (‘The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore’).
Trains and Powerlessness
Sometimes, the image of a train moving down a track is not really about a charted course, but rather about chaos and a lack of control. Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Crazy Train’ is a celebration of this kind of chaos , where Soul Asylum’s ‘Runaway Train’ is a lament, with an associated with a certain variety of powerlessness that sometimes happens in relationships. And Beck’s ‘Broken Train’ is a helplessness of a grander scale – the feeling that civilization itself is on a runaway train journey leading to a conclusion that is, well, less than favourable.
Conclusion
The train has become more than a simple technological advancement. It has become a metaphor of hope, of disappointment, of progress, of regress, of madness, and more. Songwriters down the decades have found a vehicle for human experience in the same way that railways and urban transit systems, and have provided a means of literal transport.
Mystery Train – Elvis Presley
Night Train – James Brown
Peace Train – Cat Stevens
Canadian Railroad Trilogy – Gordon Lightfoot
Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight and the Pips
Crazy Train – Ozzy Osborne
Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk
The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore – Michelle Shocked
Runaway Train – Soul Asylum
Broken Train - Beck
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