Railroad Sounds in records

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Pick your favorite records that have railroad sounds in them, and then, place them here, in the little white box

― mopac lido (gareth), Sunday, 8 August 2004 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

St. Etienne, 'Railway Jam'

My dad has several albums of train sounds, comparing various locomotives, etc.

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 8 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i have five volumes of sounds of steam locomotives from folkways

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Sunday, 8 August 2004 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

it's very sad, all the trains recorded on those don't run anymore so we will never hear their sounds again except on record

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Sunday, 8 August 2004 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

wait! am i derrick's dad?

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Sunday, 8 August 2004 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

it's like ilx "this is your life"!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 8 August 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

funny you should mention it. i just bought a record called "steam in the 60's, vol. 1" that's nothing but locomotives. for some reason, i can't think of any songs with train noises right now except for smashing pumpkins's "bullet train to osaka."

― mason r. butler, Sunday, 8 August 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Good heavens -- Love and Rockets, "Kundalini Express"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 August 2004 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

rockabilly, rocknroll or country records would be best

― mopac lido (gareth), Sunday, 8 August 2004 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

ah hahahaha, congrats amateurist!

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 8 August 2004 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

"I've Seen It All" by Bjork'n'Thom but derrick's choice is toppest here

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Sunday, 8 August 2004 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

calexico's "hot rail"

― a spectator bird (a spectator bird), Sunday, 8 August 2004 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Neither rockabilly, rocknroll nor country, but KLF's Chill Out has 'em all through.

― frankE (frankE), Sunday, 8 August 2004 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

the return of the thin white duke, throwing darts in lovers' eyes!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 8 August 2004 20:00 (twenty-two years ago)

the smiths, "london" (i've always interpreted that squealing feedback at the beginning of the song as trying to represent the sound of a train's breaks squealing)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 8 August 2004 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

"caroline, no," the beach boys

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 8 August 2004 20:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Stina Nordenstam, 'I See You Again', opens with a train.

Is this just locomotives, or is elevated rapid transit allowed? Young and Sexy's 'The City You Live In Is Ugly' starts and ends with the sounds of Vancouver's Skytrain.

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 8 August 2004 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

i recommend everything in the "train rock" chapter of my second book. especially "moscow diskow" by telex.

― chuck, Sunday, 8 August 2004 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Duh, Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europe Express'

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 9 August 2004 00:42 (twenty-two years ago)

seriously, the guy behind those folkways records dedicated his life (or a big portion of it) to bringing this cumbersome recording equipment around to various train crossings, stations, big downhills and steep climbs, just to record the sounds of these great big trains in various situations. the liner notes are full of technical explanations of the source of the different sounds. i used to play snatches of them on my radio show.

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Monday, 9 August 2004 01:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I know that 5 lp set you're talking about. I've always wanted that thing. That sounds great with the detailed notes and all. I have a few train lps on other labels like Audio Fidelity.

― Monetizing Eyeballs (diamond), Monday, 9 August 2004 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

i've never seen copies in a store (well, one at stereo jack's in cambridge, mass.)--i got mine when folkways was clearing out an old warehouse about 7 years ago.

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Monday, 9 August 2004 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Perhaps the least cool record ever mentioned on ILX: Love Train by Holly Johnson.

― M Carty (mj_c), Monday, 9 August 2004 06:12 (twenty-two years ago)

KLF - Last Train to Trancentral

― M Carty (mj_c), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Porter Ricks on Chain Reaction!

― martin (martin), Monday, 9 August 2004 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

'the train from kansas city' by the shangri-la's

― pete b. (pete b.), Monday, 9 August 2004 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Underworld - Dark Train or Long Train or whatever it was called

― M Carty (mj_c), Monday, 9 August 2004 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's first one, F#A# infinity, has some nice train sounds on it, towards the middle. I think they said there are some tracks that run behind their studio/loft.

― Kevin H (Kevin H), Monday, 9 August 2004 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

once again, i must bring up railroad jerk's "the ballad of railroad jerk". the train whistle is right at the beginning.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 9 August 2004 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Satellite and Atom Cristal, two French electronic artists, collaborated on a tape that consisted of an aural journey on the Paris Metro. Very cool Kraftwerkian beats with ambient sounds from the trains and stations, and the package included an actual Metro ticket.

It's on the Tago Mago label, and I bought one from Cuneiform probably 20 years ago. Has anybody else in the world ever heard this?

http://www.discogs.com/release/223682

― briania (briania), Monday, 9 August 2004 13:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I was just going to mention that, Maria.

― Huck, Monday, 9 August 2004 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite: 'Take the A Train' on Clifford Brown's Study in Brown, with Max Roach's kick-ass train brushes and C-Dawg and Harold Land blowing the whistle.

― JordanC, Monday, 9 August 2004 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

What about James Brown's "Night Train"?

― Huck, Monday, 9 August 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

johnny cash - ride that train

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 9 August 2004 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

skatalites- guns of navarone (sort of)

― |||| (amateurist), Monday, 9 August 2004 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"Runaway Train", a 12" released on Touch a few years ago.

― Stephen Boyle (SBoyle), Monday, 9 August 2004 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Dance Reaction-Disco Train

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 9 August 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Jimmy Rodgers and DeFord Bailey to thread, of course. And that which owns: Bukka White - "Panama Limited."

― briania (briania), Monday, 9 August 2004 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, bukka had about 100 versions of that one, all named after different railroad lines.

― |||| (amateurist), Monday, 9 August 2004 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

What a box set that would be!

― briania (briania), Monday, 9 August 2004 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a Bo Diddley song whose title escapes me at the moment - "i'm going home" or something similar.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 9 August 2004 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a nice trainwhistle in Manu Chao's "Denia".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 9 August 2004 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

We haven't even begun to exhaust the obvious examples, e.g., B.T. Express - "Express," XTC - "Train Running Low on Soul Coal," Quad City DJ's - "The Train."

― briania (briania), Monday, 9 August 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

afghan whigs, "crime scene pt 1"/"faded"

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 9 August 2004 18:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Public Enemy's Night Train, too.

― M Carty (mj_c), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 06:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Public Enemy's Night Train, too!

― M Carty (mj_c), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 06:12 (twenty-two years ago)

steve reich - 'different trains'

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 11:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Gap Band - "Party Train"!

Monkees - "Midnight Train"

And the Pips mimic a train whistle with the "whoo whoo" on MT to GA ...

― Joseph McCombs, Tuesday, 10 August 2004 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

nurse with wound + current 93: "nichts". you gotta go to hell on teh black diamond train. yesyes.

― :|, Tuesday, 10 August 2004 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

the big pitchbend synth pad before the beats drop in surgeon's 'la real' always reminds me of a train (doppler effect...) and I wonder if it's kind of a sly nod to Kraftwerk (t.e.e.)

― tylero (tylero), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Muddy Waters & Paul Butterfield Blues Band - "All Aboard"

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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