Talk:I've Been Working on the Railroad

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it's also known that the song "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" by They Might Be Giants contains the melody of that song. indeed, an interesting piece of information :)

Song lyrics: The verses come from many sources but the "Folksinger's Handbook" and "Folksongs of the Past" each have the lines below

Fie, fi, fiddly-i-o Fie, fi, fiddly-i-o-o-o-o Fie, fi, fiddly-i-o Strummin' on the old banjo

Someone's makin' love to Dinah Someone's making love I know-o-o-o Someone's making love to Dinah 'Cause I can't hear the old banjo

Just because one doesn't know them doesn't mean they don't exist. Do a google search and I'm sure you'll see them in places.

09192006: Yes various raunchy versions do exist. However, the version here is the "standard" version used in the United States and in innumerable audio recordings.

Contents 1 Lyrics not allowed? 2 Masturbation? 3 Cara al sol 4 Making Love to Dinah

[edit] Lyrics not allowed?

I checked out wikipedia's Battle Hymn of the Republic, and the Star Spangled Banner and plenty of music books and composed music do not have the lyrics which wikipedia lists. They are not well known but they have been used for countless decades the same as Railroad. I grew up in the 50's-60's knowing this verse... it should stay.

[edit] Masturbation?

This song is in the list of songs about masturbation. It wouldn't surprise me, but without references I'd be inclined to delete it. --IanOsgood 19:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

There's arguably a reference to hanky-panky of some sort in the "kitchen with Dinah" section, but masturbation seems like a leap. Nareek 21:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cara al sol

Cara al sol, has a reference to this song. But this... --213.60.42.231 00:23, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Making Love to Dinah

The final stanza in some versions of the article ("Someone's makin' love to Dinah") I find to be of dubious veracity. The words don't fit the established rhythm, for one thing, and the blatantness of the sexual reference is out of character with the rest of the song. It sounds like something someone made up in school one day. Oddly enough, the only non-Wikipedia reference I found for it is from the University of Austin. Given all these factors, it is essential that a reliable source be found to back up the inclusion of that stanza. Powers ^T 14:15, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

It's 4 paragraphs above this one, "Folksinger's Handbook" and "Folksongs of the Past" include the lines. My copy of the "Folksinger's Wordbook" has it. I also just did a quick look on the net and found it at homeschoolfamily.com and encyclopedia.com. If you notice NONE of the article has a listed source for the lyrics and when playing on the guitar I find the words fit the rhythm just as well as the other stanzas. I can't help it if you were taught a expurgated version but this is the version I learned many years ago. A couple of friends were brought up with "kissing" instead of "making love" but the book references I've seen have "making love" so that's what is used here. Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:44, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

I apologize for missing the book references. I can't find any information on those books, so I really can't judge their reliability. As for encyclopedia.com, I couldn't find an article on this topic; can you link it directly? I don't think homeschoolfamily.com is a reliable source; the search came up with a personal essay that referenced another web site as a source for lyrics. For all we know those lyrics might have come from Wikipedia, because they're unreferenced. The books might be reliable, but they might not; I just don't have enough information to say. Powers ^T 12:03, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

I guess the encyclopedia.com one won't link unless you are a paid subscriber. I can say that the site lists as its source for the lyrics, "New York Public Library Book of Popular Americana" which I see at amazon.com. However the "Folksinger's Wordbook" is available from amazon.com right now too: (http://www.amazon.com/Folksingers-Wordbook-Irwin-Silber/dp/0825601460/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197924605&sr=8-1). I have the '73 edition so I can't comment on the newer versions. The site homeschool references is a campsong website and it has a few other different lines added so I doubt it came from wiki. My old campsong handout sheets from the 60's have both kissing and making love listed. I didn't use them since they were ditto copied (love that smell) from an unknown source. It's the only way I've ever heard the song and most of my relatives learned it the same way. I was surprised when someone once wrote they had never heard those lyrics, but not shocked, since most don't know the extra verses to the Star Spangled banner either. Fyunck(click) (talk) 21:25, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

You'd written "Handbook" not "Wordbook" before, so that's why I couldn't find it. Amazon's copy of the latest edition of the Wordbook has an additional verse that isn't in this article; any reason for that? Regardless, it looks like Irwin Silber is a reliable enough source. I'd remove the other two references since they're of dubious reliability; the Silber book should be good enough. Powers ^T 03:02, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

I saw the other verse but I didn't include it because 1)I had never learned it in all my camping days, though one of my buddies did 2)The other two old books I had lying around that listed the "makin love" verse did not have that additional verse. I wanted a secondary source before listing it here...since I couldn't find one I thought it better not to include it in the wiki encyclopedia lest there be even more controversy. Thanks for being civil about this thing... I find most of the time that is not the case on wiki. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:20, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

"Making love" used to mean "courtship/wooing". One chapter of Tom Sawyer is even called "Making War and Love" in some versions (in others it is "Busy at War and Love" - possibly a modern alteration). So that verse probably wasn't meant to be as explicit as it sounds now. Rwestera (talk) 01:45, 18 April 2008 (UTC)