"Life is Like a Mountain Railway" Questions
Warren L Duncan
I really enjoy "Life is Like a Mountain Railway". Found it long ago on
a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band guest-type cassette with Johnny Cash singing
the lead. I have since bought the CD and other CDs with the same song
by different artists. One other band is "the seldom scene".
I have searched the net for information using search engines. I've
come up with two different parody versions (lyrics), but never any
background information about when "Life..." was written, by whom, or if
there are other songs by the same songwriter.
One of the parody's referred to a year 1895, so I take it that
"Life..." is VERY old.
Anyone know where I might look to find some more information about such
an old song?
Warren
Manfred Helfert
On 21 Sep 1997 09:44:45 GMT, Warren L Duncan <ches...@cheerful.com>
wrote:
Here's some info I've compiled from several sources.
1) British folklorist A. L. Lloyd (in "Come All Ye Bold Miners")
collected the "Miner's Life" ("A miner's life is like a sailor's...")
variant in Aberaman, South Wales, and suggested that it was "either a
song of Welsh origin exported to America or that it evolved among
Welsh migrant miners in the United States because it is sung to the
Welsh hymn tune 'Calon Lan.'" (Edith Fowke & Joe Glazer, Songs of Work
and Protest, New York, NY, 1973, p. 67)
2) In the U.S., this (presumably Welsh) tune was used for "a
nineteenth-century sacred song called 'Life's Railway to Heaven.'"
(ibid.)
3) In Fred Bock (ed.), Country & Western Gospel Hymnal, Grand Rapids,
MI, 1972, p. 98, the song is credited to M. E. Abbey and Charlie D.
Tillman.
4) George Korson (in: Coal Dust on the Fiddle, pp. 413-415) reprints a
version of the "miner's" variant collected from Mrs. Luigi Gugliotta
of Mt. Hope, WV and dates the song "1900-1910".
I'll probably include the "miner's" variant, as well as the "weaver's"
variant (as recorded by The Almanac Singers on Jul 7, 1941) in the
"History in Song" section of my website listed below asa I can find
the time.
This is all I can come up with, so far.
Any additional info appreciated
-- Manfred
"Routes, Routes & Ramblings" Dylan Musical Roots and Influences
Website at http://www.yi.com/home/HelfertManfred/index.htm
PLEASE CHECK OUT THE NEW "AMERICAN HISTORY IN SONG" SECTION
of my "Ballads From Deep Gap" Doc Watson Website at
http.//www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/index.html
Capohd28
The Amazing Rhythm Aces (Russell Smith) also had an excellent version on
one of their few LPs.
John Lupton
In article <34252388...@news.wiesbaden.netsurf.de>,
manf...@compuserve.com wrote:
=>On 21 Sep 1997 09:44:45 GMT, Warren L Duncan <ches...@cheerful.com>
=>wrote:
=>
=>>I really enjoy "Life is Like a Mountain Railway". Found it long ago on
=>>a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band guest-type cassette with Johnny Cash singing
=>>the lead. I have since bought the CD and other CDs with the same song
=>>by different artists. One other band is "the seldom scene".
=>>
=>>I have searched the net for information using search engines. I've
=>>come up with two different parody versions (lyrics), but never any
=>>background information about when "Life..." was written, by whom, or if
=>>there are other songs by the same songwriter.
=>>
=>>One of the parody's referred to a year 1895, so I take it that
=>>"Life..." is VERY old.
=>>
=>>Anyone know where I might look to find some more information about such
=>>an old song?
=>
=>Here's some info I've compiled from several sources.
=>1) British folklorist A. L. Lloyd (in "Come All Ye Bold Miners")
=>collected the "Miner's Life" ("A miner's life is like a sailor's...")
=>variant in Aberaman, South Wales, and suggested that it was "either a
=>song of Welsh origin exported to America or that it evolved among
=>Welsh migrant miners in the United States because it is sung to the
=>Welsh hymn tune 'Calon Lan.'" (Edith Fowke & Joe Glazer, Songs of Work
=>and Protest, New York, NY, 1973, p. 67)
Interesting, I've never seen that citation of the source of the tune, thanks.
During the (American) Civil War, that same tune was used for a song called
"Vacant Chair". In the aftermath of the original broadcast of Ken Burns' PBS
series on the Civil War, Columbia Records put out a CD called "Songs Of The
Civil War", which included a version of "Vacant Chair" done by Kathy Mattea.
Sorry, I don't recall who was credited as the writer of "Vacant Chair".
[remove 'x' from 'sasx' to reply]
********************************************************************************
John Lupton, Network Services Manager, School of Arts & Sciences, Univ. of Penn.
"Rural Free Delivery", WVUD-FM 91.3, Newark, Delaware
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jlupton/rfd.html
Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jlupton/bfotm.html
********************************************************************************
The University of Pennsylvania: a bar with a $31,000 cover charge...
Fred Bulger
Warren L Duncan wrote:
> I really enjoy "Life is Like a Mountain Railway". Found it long ago
> on
> a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band guest-type cassette with Johnny Cash singing
> the lead. I have since bought the CD and other CDs with the same song
>
> by different artists. One other band is "the seldom scene".
>
> Anyone know where I might look to find some more information about
> such
> an old song?
Not really, but I can tell you that the RIce Brothers recorded it on
their first album.
Take care...
-Fred.
Ktrnka
Warren L Duncan wrote:
>>
>> I really enjoy "Life is Like a Mountain Railway". Found it long ago
>> on a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band guest-type cassette
>> with Johnny Cash singing
>> the lead. I have since bought the CD and other CDs with the same song
>> by different artists. One other band is "the seldom scene".
>>
>>
> - Anyone know where I might look to find some more information about
> - such an old song?
> -
Fred Bulger wrote:
> Not really, but I can tell you that the RIce Brothers recorded it on
> their first album.
Does anyone out there recall the Congress of Wonders version?
toot toot?
@}~~ Ktrnka
FolkWaxMan
Two other sources of "Life Is Like A Mountain Railway" that come to mind
is one version on an early Linda Ronstadt LP. Another somewhat ragged
version is sung by none other than Marlon Brando, disguised as a preacher
in the movie, "The Missouri Breaks"
Frank Reid
version couldn't help singing these words when she attended a church
where they sang the original:
LIFE IS LIKE A CARBIDE LANTERN
by Barb MacLeod
tune: "Life's Railway to Heaven" (trad. gospel)
Life is like a carbide lantern
With a plugged-up water drip.
As you sputter through existence,
You will carbon-up your tip.
With the felt of fate all sodden,
And the spark of hope kaput,
Keep your thumb upon the flintwheel,
And your eye upon your foot.
chorus 1:
You must bear life's broken gasket,
Leaking troubles all the while;
But keep a shine on your reflector
Through the countless dents of trial.
Life is like an endless cavern
With a stream of neck-deep mud.
As you drag the tape of toil,
You must run before the flood.
Though your survey team forsake you
In the water crawl of strife,
You must heed your obligation
To the catacomb of life.
chorus 2:
Though you never make your closures,
And your stations wash away,
Keep your mind upon life's' purpose;
Try to map a mile a day.
In the labyrinthine mazes
You will surely lose your way;
Searching for one survey station,
Through the night, throughout the day.
Cling then to your inner virtue
Though your light begins to fail;
Keep your eye upon your footprints,
Never quake or never quail.
chorus 2
Searching through the corkscrew passage
Into which your pack you tossed,
You will find your compass broken,
And your only pencil lost.
You will howl in desperation,
Throw your notes into the pit;
For this cave of tribulation
You will often feel unfit.
chorus 2
You'll forever ask the question,
Why did I get into this?
Turn my back on rain and sunshine,
All those pleasures that I missed.
From the depths will ooze the answer,
Quoth the mesmerizing call,
That that day is drawing nigh when
Into glory land you'll crawl.
chorus 2
--
Frank re...@indiana.edu
Linda Sides
Quoting Wayne Erbsen [hello, Wayne!] in his *Old Time Gospel* Songbook
published by Mel Bay:
***"Life's Railway to Heaven" ...was copyrighted January 18,1890, with words
credited to a Baptist preacher named M. E. Abbey and music to Charles D.
Tillman from Atlanta...However, the authors "borrowed" heavily from a poem
written by Civil War ear songwriter William Shakespeare Hays, who wrote songs
like "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" and "Drummer Boy of Shiloh". Hays' poem
was published in 1886 and entitled "The Faithful Engineer". It began "Life
is like a crooked railroad, and the engineer is brave..."***
[my editorial comment would be, without having seen the entire poem, that
"mountain" is enough better than "crooked" to be allowed]
Linda Sides
ham...@atl.mindspring.com
folkw...@aol.com (FolkWaxMan) wrote:
Union miners stand together
Heed no operator's tale
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale.....People's Songbook
ghost
In article <60f2qs$r...@camel1.mindspring.com> ham...@atl.mindspring.com writes:
>folkw...@aol.com (FolkWaxMan) wrote:
+>>Two other sources of "Life Is Like A Mountain Railway" that come to mind
+>>is one version on an early Linda Ronstadt LP. Another somewhat ragged
+>>version is sung by none other than Marlon Brando, disguised as a preacher
+>>in the movie, "The Missouri Breaks"
->Union miners stand together
->Heed no operator's tale
->Keep your hand upon the dollar
->And your eye upon the scale.....People's Songbook
Siuwsan George (spelling hers) has a version of this on her recent
Saydisc "Songs of Wales" CD. She notes to audiences that the scale
mentioned is not the scale on which material brought up from the mine
is weighed, as everybody nowadays thinks, but a particularly invidious
pay-scale devised to dock miners of their supposedly agreed-upon pay.