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<\/a>Richard<\/p><\/div>When I was a boy, everyone in Rockland heard freight trains at night, travelling on the far side of the Ottawa River. The trains followed the Thurso, Mason-Angers, Gatineau line, the far-away mournful cries of their whistles reverberating in the dark. There is no other sound like it.<\/p>\n
When I started playing music at the age of 13, everyone had a train song. Johnny Cash had several, like \u201cFolsom Prison Blues\u201d and \u201cHey Porter.\u201d Train songs ranged from the deep dark chugging of Junior Parker’s \u201cMystery Train\u201d, the mournful lament of \u201cWaiting For A Train\u201d by Jimmie Rodgers, the irresistible funk of James Brown’s \u201cNight Train\u201d, to the lilting happy melodies of Elizabeth Cotton’s \u201cFreight Train.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/a>South Indian 1907<\/p><\/div>In the early 20th century, the lines of the Grand Trunk Railway crossed eastern Ontario between Ottawa and Montreal. South Indian was one of the stations and its location is now the village of Limoges. There was also a station in North Indian, which became the village of Hammond, not far from Rockland.<\/p>\n
My personal all-time favourite train song is \u201cClick Clack\u201d by Don Van Vliet (1941-2010), Captain Beefheart himself, the man with a beef in his heart against this society. \u201cClick Clack\u201d is all motion, trains coming and going, and a girl \u201cthreatening to go down to N’Orleans, get herself lost and found.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most impressive train song I’ve ever witnessed is \u201cThe Rail Song\u201d by Adrian Belew (b. 1949), a beautifully nostalgic song about his life-long love of trains released in 1983 on the album \u201cTwang Bar King.\u201d Adrian Belew worked with some of the biggest names in the business, including Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads and King Crimson. Belew’s guitar sounds like everything in the world, including a guitar. He is a master of instrument design and multimedia, collaborating with the Parker Guitars company to help design his Parker Fly signature guitar. No one has a repertoire of astounding guitar sounds like Adrian Belew.<\/p>\n