When I grew up I could just make out the train tracks beyond the fields and the creek lined by brush and small trees. At night, after the 'lights out' had been called by my parents, I would kneel on my bed, arms rested on the window sill, nose pressed to the glass, waiting for the trains to pass by - no more than a line of lights on the horizon, like a string of golden pearls rolling across the black velvet of the darkness. Hearing the whistle call out through the night across the expanse signaled all is well and lulled me to sleep filled with dreams of boarding a train and seeing the world beyond.
I guess that's at the root of my fascination with trains and my loving songs which resonate with that fascination. One of those songs is '500 Miles' - performed by 'The Hooters' (also here) and so many others ... Perhaps Paul Simon has it right when singing:
Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance ...
500 Miles
The Hooters
If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow
A hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow
A hundred miles
Lord, I'm one, Lord, I'm two
Lord, I'm three, Lord, I'm four
Lord, I'm five hundred miles away from home
Away from home, away from home
Away from home, away from home
Lord, I'm five hundred miles
Away from home
Not a shirt on my back
Not a penny to my name
Lord, I can't go back home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way
This a-way, this a-way
Lord, I can't go back home
This a-way
If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow
A hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow
A hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow
A hundred miles
Songwriters: HEDY WEST
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
The Hooters also recorded a version of this song with additional lyrics, dedicated to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. It goes: "A hundred tanks along the square, one man stands and stops them there. Some day soon, the tide will turn, and I'll be free."
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