What - these old things?

Photo taken back in 2008 at the Bridge of Dun end of the local volunteer-run Caledonian Railway.


So TFE's task this week is that we write something to do with trains. For various reasons I've not really been in a position to come up with a new poem this time (and hey, I did write TWO new poems for last week's effort!) but I've managed a recent poem or so and a couple of bits of music. Think of this more as the buffet car than the main body of the train. Or something.

First off, in only October 09 (back here if you want the intro and build-up) I was writing about trains and history and my hometown and songwriting (amongst other things) in a poem called 'Rolling stock'. Here's the poem again:


Rolling stock

People talk, people sing about homeward bound
Of the place where they stay, where they'd like to remain
But the wheels of our lives go round and around

Take a town, Darlington, once so key and renowned
As the place where they rolled out the age of the train
People talk, people sing about homeward bound

The tracks of our trains may now seem run aground
But in 1825 they were our future - plain
The industry wheels going round and around

Locomotives moved coal and then folk by the pound
All thanks to the whirring of George Stephenson's brain
People sing, people long to be homeward bound

But progress takes over the wheel, so we've found
From the foot to the cart, from the car to the plane
Faster and further, around and around

Still we look for a home and listen for its sound
Where will it be, do we know its refrain?
People talk, people sing about homeward bound
But the wheels of our lives they go round and around


RF 2009


I also wrote a poem (that became a song) about trains and planes a while back. This one came about because one day I was just about to board a Scotrail train from Montrose down to Leuchars (south of here) when I saw and heard fighter jets zooming by. Leuchars is the local base here for fighter planes so I pondered on how much quicker they would get to their destination than me (amongst other things). I read this first as a poem, then it got a chorus and a few outings as a song but for now (because I'm not working regularly with a musician) it's a poem again. I've left the chorus in anyway though...sing along if you feel the urge (with or without music).


Leuchars, here we come

It's the strangest coincidence
Meeting you here today
Here's me on the train
There's you up and away

We're both heading south
Destination the same
I'm on my way to Edinburgh
You're in a jet fighter plane

Chorus
Up and away
Up and away
Come back quickly
Slowly stay

We could chat on our trip
We could flirt, gently so
Except you're moving so fast
And I'm moving so slow

You travel the air
With such style and such speed
No stopping for passengers
No in-flights to read

Chorus

You race past the geese
And they move pretty fast
They hit all their targets
No Sat Nav or maps

You can't smell our loos
And you can't meet our guard
You see us as tiny specks
Just as we see the stars

Chorus

I'm not one for war
For its gadgets and toys
And I know that sometimes
You can leave more than noise

But here you have power
You roar by, stir my heart
Make kites look unambitious
If a good place to start

Chorus

How I hate to fly bulk
Hate those cattle truck things
But you're something much finer
You're excitement with wings

And the whole world is laid
Before your Top Gun eyes
Take me with you, my pilot
To your view in the skies

Chorus to fade


RF 2005


Now for other people's music...who sings more about trains than blues singers and blues bands? One band who's been to our folk club a couple of times is the international-but-based-in-England blues band Spikedrivers. They're really great live and I would recommend you see them if you get the chance. However until then here's a clip of them doing a suitably trainy song called 'Train done gone':





Also here's English folk singer Pete Morton singing his much-covered 'Another Train' at what seems to be a house concert in the Netherlands:





I mentioned him once before (he has a song called 'I'm in love with Emily Dickinson' as much as anything else).

So, that's my contribution this week. And don't forget...if you have a water poem you want to share with the world head down to the post before this (scroll down or click 'older post' or go here) to see the terms and conditions.

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