Being an acolyte of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, 'tis no surprise that Bob Dylan also worked in the mileu of the train song. In fact, his 1962 debut Bob Dylan contained a track called "Freight Train Blues":
But his most celebrated train song is easily "It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" from his towering masterpiece Highway 61 Revisited. It's a slow-burn Chicago-style blues with a soaring melody and plenty of Dylanesque put-downs (not to mention a killer title):
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh" began in a much faster form as "Phantom Engineer" which was released on the first Bootleg Series record. But not completely happy with the results, Dylan sent his band out to lunch and came up with the stately groove that makes the song so distinctive.
The song is also notable for its first verse, "Well I ride on a milk train baby/Can't buy a thrill" which inspired the title for Steely Dan's debut album. It was also covered for many years by the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band.
Dylan has returned to the song again and again, such as this version here with George Harrison and Leon Russell at the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh:
... And at the second Woodstock festival in 1994. Don't say I never warned you:
1 comments:
It's 100 percent Grade A "mailtrain" vs. milk!
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