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Probably. But consider this, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-49noOAFsG8

Mike

Or this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOnESpYhLp4

or this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8UeWjynWvE

Ken Miller

Yep.

And this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pic_XLqR0Wg

Nothing against a good Johnny Cash, on this one I personally prefer the version with Rory Gallagher on the guitar..

Mike

I'm actually surprised that anyone in North America knows of any other records by Shocking Blue other than "Venus" !
Same goes for here in the UK, unless you happened to listen to the Offshore Pirate Radio stations in the early 1970's (like I used to do...), as music originating from Europe didn't get any airtime (with a few notable exceptions) on our mainstream Broadcasters.

A lot of Cash could be mentioned for obvious reasons, so I will leave that unstated.

So for some more modern examples, the train is used as a symbol of death or fate in The Killer's Pressure Machine which is set on the town of Nephi, Utah along Union Pacific's Sharp Subdivision. Notable tracks were the train is prominent include:

[*]Quiet Town which is based off two teenagers who were killed at a grade crossing accident in 1994. A Big Boy looking engine also makes an appearance in the animated music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UinEpwdGcA
[*]In the Car Outside which discusses a midlife marriage crisis as being like a "train going past." Note the guitar rift is based around the sound of a railroad crossing with the vocals imitating a train horn noise at the end of the track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJs57GL69Mc
[*]The Getting By which ends with a recorded audio snippet of a train on the Sharp Subdivision blowing through town while the man in the interview segment discusses how his grandchildren love to run out and watch the train pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEj68RTGxgE
The collectible lyric book for the album also includes a diagrams of a locomotive valve gear set up alongside the lyrics for In the Car Outside: https://imgur.com/a/72euwYY

While not as blatant as The Killer's seeming fascination with trains in their last album, its worth noting a few snippets of mentioning railroads from The War On Drugs in their lyrics such as In Reverse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqW7c6s49j0

While not mentioned in the lyrics explicitly, Dan Auerbach's solo stuff and his work in The Black Keys has a habit of shooting videos in prominent railroad towns with footage of the trains rolling past.
[*]For example from his solo album King of A One Horse Town is shot in Helper, Utah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RDBp_ofQL8
[*]Then trains were shown in several shots during multiple videos for The Black Key's Delta Kream outside the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi along the former Illinois Central tracks. Again pick almost any video they made for Delta Kream, there is going to be at least one shot of a train in it somewhere! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVMa9TpRxk4

The one commonality of all those artists, is they seem to have a desire to emulate classic Americana music, either via heartland rock or blues rock. So even if lyrically the references to railways or trains might be light (excluding The Killers' who made railroads an outright lyrical basis to their album), it seems in all cases when it comes time for the music video referencing the railroads or having shots of trains rolling past is a way to reinforce a sense of American and place.

As an aside some more examples of trains prominently in music videos.

The Piano Guy's Code Name Vivaldi ends with a shot onboard a train on the Heber Valley Railroad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09RUuTAM2H0

Best train related music video probably comes from the UK thanks to Queen... Breakthru, the entire thing is shot behind GWR 3822 on the Nene Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEjU9KVABao

I think there was also some K-pop guy who shot something on the Nevada Northern behind 40 once as well... but I don't want to look that one up.

Country music has long had an association with railroads, and I may be putting some of that up later.

In the meantime, here's something from REM that has a lot of footage from Clifton Forge, Va., on the former C&O--only everything in this one has cats on it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuFId1RYSZE

This one is blues--but the artist is from Great Britain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pwNGNbp9D4

From the same performer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThQac00ZqFA

This live version of 'Southern Pacific' is my favourite railroad song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21ph2y3EYNI

Railroads have been subject of many songs… popular or not. Here are a few…

Grateful Dead, Casey Jones… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x2m6i4KFqg

John Mayhal, (yes English) Ain’t No Brakeman on this train https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=royU089cdxg

Warren Zevon, two songs

Nightime in the Switching Yard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqLZZ1jVTR8

Poor Pitiful me (lay my head on the tracks but the train doesn’t run here anymore) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4UR-xW9Hr0 This also covered by Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstat…

Don’t forget City of New Orleans, by Steve Goodman, covered by Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson among others… here Arlo’s version… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMS_ykiLiQ

An old option… Zach the Mormon Engineer by H L Hilton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKT_uyVuw7I

Maybe the best... Guy Clark… Streamlined Train… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_KyECYV16A

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I prefer Early Morning Rain. And it does mention a freight train.

Here's a playlist I put together for a heritage open day. Bit of swing, bit of Australian, bit of folk...

'Take The A-Train'
'The Seekers - Morningtown Ride'
'Canadian Railroad Trilogy'
'Chattanooga Choo Choo'
'Tuxedo Junction'
'The Ghan'
'Early Morning Rain'
'The Seekers - Five Hundred Miles'
'2_19 Blues'
'3801 A Legend In Steam Song - Ray King & Ron Russell'
'Buddy can you spare a dime'
'Doris Day A Sentimental Journey'
'Duke Ellington - Daybreak Express'
'Early Tex Morton - On The Gundagai Line (1936)'
'Early Tex Morton - The Railroad Bum (1937)'
"I've Been Working On The Railroad"
'John Henry - Johnny Cash'
'John Henry Song (Harry Belafonte)'
'Johnny Ashcroft - Jolly Green Giant'
'Johnny Cash - Casey Jones'
"Johnny Cash - 'Wabash Cannonball'"
'kraftwerk - trans europa express'
'Number Twenty-Two'
'Peter, Paul & Mary - Freight Train (by EarpJohn)'
'Poor Paddy Works On The Railway Ewan MacColl'
'Second Class Wait Here'
'Sergeant Small'
'Slim Dusty - Indian Pacific Train Australia'
'Slim Dusty - On the Night Train'
The Poison Train
"The Joy Boys - Southern 'Rora 1962"
'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'
'The Seekers The Wreck Of The Old 97 (1965)'
"Vernon Dalhart 'The Runaway Train.'"

Mostly found on youtube.

Another from Ol' Gordon, "Talking Freight"

https://youtu.be/0SLZJTQtxwQ


And, of course, "Steel Rail Blues"
https://youtu.be/0NTNjyd6dpg

Here is one I like a lot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wylUo3e ... rt_radio=1

Then there's that Orange Blossom Special - for virtuoso fiddler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPpZ3GqAUI4

Annie Staninec on Fiddle, John Kael on guitar, Mott Jordan on Bass, Larry Cohea on Banjo.

Phil Mulligan

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