Title: [Appreciation] | The 23 Best Train Songs Ever Written—Maybe, by Kevin Baker | Harper's Magazine
Headings: The Twenty-Three Best Train Songs Ever Written—Maybe
The Twenty-Three Best Train Songs Ever Written—Maybe
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Content: Beautifully evocative, right down to the faint bell of a crossing and the sound of a receding train at the very end. And not without Newman’s usual humor. Its best lines were about his uncles drinking rye whiskey from a flask in the backseat of a “great green Hudson”: “ Tryin’ do like the gentiles do/ They wanna be gentiles, too!/ Who wouldn’t down there/ Wouldn’t you?” 11. “ 500 Miles.” No, not the Proclaimers song from that Johnny Depp movie. “ 500 Miles” — also known as “500 Miles Away from Home” or the “Railroader’s Lament” — was first put together from snippets of old folk songs that the great Hedy West remembered hearing from her family. There’s a famous version Joan Baez sang live in England, but I’d go with Peter, Paul and Mary’s version, or Rosanne Cash’s. 12. “