Rock Island Line

"Rock Island Line" is an American blues/folk song first recorded by John Lomax in 1934 as sung by inmates in an Arkansas State Prison, and later popularized by Lead Belly.^[1] Many versions have been recorded by other artists, most significantly the world-wide hit version in the mid-1950s by Lonnie Donegan. The song is ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

The chorus to the old song reads:

The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road
The Rock Island Line is the road to ride
The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road
If you want to ride you gotta ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line

The verses tell a humorous story about a train operator who smuggled pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock.

History

The earliest known version of "Rock Island Line" was written in 1929 by Clarence Wilson, a member of the Rock Island Colored Booster Quartet, a singing group made up of employees of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad at the Biddle Shops freight yard in Little Rock, Arkansas. The lyrics to this version are largely different to the version that later evolved and became famous, with verses describing people and activities associated with the yard.^[2]

The first audio recording of the song was made by John A. Lomax at the state prison in Tucker, Arkansas on 29 September 1934. Lead Belly accompanied Lomax to the prison. This version retains some lyrical features of the 1929 version, but also features key elements of the "classic" version. A similar version was recorded by Lomax in October 1934 at Cummins Prison Farm in Lincoln County, Arkansas, performed by a group of singers led by Kelly Pace.^[3]

In 1964, The Penguin Book Of American Folk Songs, compiled and with notes by Alan Lomax, was published. It includes "Rock Island Line" with the following footnote:

John A. Lomax recorded this song at the Cumins State Prison farm, Gould, Arkansas, in 1934 from its convict composer, Kelly Pace. The Negro singer, Lead Belly, heard it, rearranged it in his own style, and made commercial phonograph recordings of it in the 1940s. One of these recordings was studied and imitated phrase by phrase, by a young English singer of American folk songs [referring to Lonnie Donegan], who subsequently recorded it for an English company. The record sold in the hundreds of thousands in the U.S. and England, and this Arkansas Negro convict song, as adapted by Leadbelly, was published as a personal copyright, words and music, by someone whose contact with the Rock Island Line was entirely through the grooves of a phonograph record.^[4]

According to Harry Lewman Music,

Lead Belly and John and Alan Lomax supposedly first heard it from [a] prison work gang during their travels in 1934/35. It was sung a cappella. Huddie sang and performed this song, finally settling on a format where he portrayed, in song, a train engineer asking the depot agent to let his train start out on the main line.^[5]

Lonnie Donegan's recording, released as a single in late 1955, signalled the start of the UK "skiffle" craze. This recording featured Donegan, Chris Barber on double bass and washboard player (Beryl Bryden), but as it was part of a Chris Barber's Jazz Band session for Decca Records, Donegan received no royalties from Decca for record sales, beyond his original session fee.

Pete Seeger recorded a version a cappella while he was chopping wood, to demonstrate its origins.^[5]

Versions

"Rock Island Line" has been recorded by:

1930s – 1940s

• John Lomax recorded "Rock Island Line" sung by prisoners in Arkansas twice in 1934. The October 1934 recording, by Kelly Pace and a group of convicts was released on the compilation album A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings (released 1997)^[6]
• Lead Belly recorded the song at Washington, D.C. on June 22, 1937, the first of many recordings of it he made during his career, the last being live at the University of Texas on June 15, 1949.^[7]
  "Rock Island Line" appears in the Lead Belly compilation Rock Island Line: Original 1935-1943 Recordings (released 2003),^[8] amongst many others.
• John Lomax recorded "Rock Island Line" sung by prisoners in Arkansas in 1939. It is included in the recordings made during his 1939 Southern States Recording Trip.^[9]

1950s

• George Melly - single (1951)

  Recorded for the small British Jazz label Tempo (which was subsequently acquired by Decca) under the name "The George Melly Trio", and featuring Johnny Parker on piano and Norman Dodsworth on drums (both members of Mick Mulligan's Magnolia Jazz Band with whom Melly was the singer). Although lyrically similar, Melly's version of "Rock Island Line" is different from any version by Leadbelly, or indeed any other version.

• Odetta as part of the duo Odetta and Larry The Tin Angel 1954
• Lonnie Donegan - single (1955)

  In July 1954, Donegan recorded this fast-tempoed version of "Rock Island Line", with Chris Barber's Jazz Band, featuring "John Henry" on the B-side. It was the first debut record to go gold in Britain, where it helped trigger the "skiffle craze",^[10] and reached the top ten in the United States.

• Bobby Darin - single (1956)

  Bobby Darin's debut single was a 1956 recording of "Rock Island Line", with 'rhythm accompaniment directed by Jack Pleis', featuring "Timber" (written by Darin, Don Kirshner and George M. Shaw) on the B-side. It was released on the Decca Records label. For his first television performance (on Stage Show), he sang this song with the lyrics written on the palms of his hands as there were no cue cards provided for him.

• Don Cornell - single (1956)

  Recorded for Coral, an early American cover version following the success of Lonnie Donegan's record in the US charts. Whilst on tour in Britain in 1956, Cornell and Donegan met, with the result that Cornell's manager became Donegan's American representative.

• Stan Freberg - single (1956)

  This was a typical Freberg "send up" of Lonnie Donegan's "Rock Island Line", following the latter's chart success in the USA. Issued on Capitol, it was the B-side to Freberg's parody of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", which became an American chart hit.

• Merrill Moore with Cliffie Stone's Orchestra - single (April, 1956)
• The Weavers - The Weavers' Greatest Hits (1957)^[11]
• Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar (1957)

  Cash adds two verses to the song, one about a train coming down the track and the second about an engineer indicating two beverages he wants to try before he dies: "a hot cup of coffee and a cool glass of tea."

• Milt Okun - America's Best Loved Folk Songs - Baton BL1203 (1957)
• Johnny Horton - 1956–1960 (1957)^[12]

  Recorded in 1957, released posthumously.

1960s

• The Brothers Four - The Brothers Four Song Book CS8497 (1961)
• Ramblin Jack Elliot - "Young Brigham" (1968)

1970s

• Harry Belafonte on the LP 11-7701 which was later released on the CDs "All Time Greatest Hits Vol. 3" (07863-59771-2) and "36 All-Time Greatest Hits" (1130-15250-2).
• Johnny Cash - single on the album Rock Island Line (1970),^[13] see image

  This single reached #93 (US Singles Chart), and #35 (US Country chart). Cash previously recorded the song in 1957 (see above).

• Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee - In Concert BBC FOUR (1974)
• Whiskey Howl - a cappella version by the Toronto blues band on their 1972 eponymous album.
• John Lennon - acoustic and unreleased version found on the bootleg, The Lost Lennon Tapes.
• George Harrison and Paul Simon - acoustic version performed during rehearsal for November 20, 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live
• Graham Bonnet - on the album Graham Bonnet (1977)

1980s

• The Knitters - Poor Little Critter on the Road (1985)
• The Washington Squares - The Washington Squares (1987)
• Mano Negra - Patchanka (1988)
• Little Richard & Fishbone - Folkways: A Vision Shared—A Tribute To Woody Guthrie And Leadbelly (1988)

1990s

• Devil in a Woodpile (with Jane Baxter Miller) - single (1999)

  On the album Poor Little Knitter on the Road - A Tribute to the Knitters.

• Paul McCartney - During the rehearsal of the Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)

2000s

• Scott H. Biram - This is Kingsbury? (2000)^[14]
• Odetta - Looking for a Home (2001)^[15]
• Dan Zanes and Friends - Family Dance (2001)^[16]
• Long John Baldry – Remembering Leadbelly (2001)
• Chris Thomas King - Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash (2003)
• Bethany Yarrow - Rock Island (2003)^[17]
• Eleven Hundred Springs - Bandwagon (2004)^[18]
• Peter Donegan Band - Live at the Elephant (2006)^[19]
• Kickin Grass - On The Short Rows (2006)^[20]
• The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - The Gospel Album (2007)
• Ringo Starr - Ringo 2012 (2012)

Railroad associations

The song is based on the name of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, which operated an extensive network across the central states of the USA, Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska, Chicago to Texas, and reached Minneapolis, Minnesota, Memphis, Tennessee, and other points. Contrary to the song, although a minor route reached Eunice, Louisiana, it did not reach New Orleans; in several live performances released on record and on TV, Johnny Cash claims in introductions to the song that the railroad claimed the line only reached Houston, Texas. Like a number of railroads based in Chicago with lengthy formal names, it was generally known by a shortened nickname, the "Rock Island", which name was painted on the locomotives and elsewhere. Rock Island, Illinois is a small town on the shore of the Mississippi River, and the initial rail route connected it across the state to Chicago. The Rock Island was a rail pioneer from the 1850s, and was long known for carrying on through financial adversity challenging better-structured rival companies in its territory. It finally went out of business in 1980. Most of its former main routes were purchased and are now run by other rail companies.

See also

• List of Leadbelly songs
• List of train songs

Bibliography

Jeremy Price, "Lonnie Donegan, « Rock Island Line » et la corne d’abondance", Volume!, n° 7-2, Nantes, Éditions Mélanie Seteun, 2010.

References

External links

• "Rock Island Line" on Allmusic
• Oldielyrics.com, Lonnie Donegan's version of "Rock Island Line"
• A Mighty Good Road: Minnesota Public Radio
• Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

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