Items45The creator’s order
  1. 1Freight TrainFreight TrainElizabeth Cotten Cotten’s alternating bass keeps rolling under the melody like wheels over joints in the rail. She grew up hearing trains near her North Carolina home, and the unhurried guitar part makes those passing trains easy to imagine.0
  2. 2City of New OrleansCity of New OrleansArlo Guthrie Steve Goodman’s song follows the Illinois Central passenger train past towns, card games, and sleeping children. In Guthrie’s recording the train gets to speak for itself in the chorus, making the trip feel like a goodbye to an older way of traveling.0
  3. 3Folsom Prison BluesFolsom Prison BluesJohnny Cash The prisoner hears a train he cannot board and imagines the passengers traveling in comfort. The steady guitar and bass keep moving while the narrator stays in his cell. That difference gives the railroad its pull.0
  4. 4Midnight Train to GeorgiaMidnight Train to GeorgiaGladys Knight & The Pips A man whose plans have come apart in Los Angeles decides to go back to Georgia, and the woman telling the story decides to join him. Listen to the Pips answer Gladys Knight like people already making their way to the platform.0
  5. 5People Get ReadyPeople Get ReadyThe Impressions Curtis Mayfield makes the train a way to picture faith. The soft lead and answering harmonies sound like a welcome, and the song imagines boarding with no ticket. Its quiet invitation has a different force from a locomotive sound effect.0
  6. 6Mystery TrainMystery TrainElvis Presley Elvis’s Sun recording gives a train that has carried away his lover the sound of a moving blues band. Listen for Scotty Moore’s circling guitar figure and the way the singer plays against it.0
  7. 7Midnight SpecialMidnight SpecialLead Belly From inside prison, the train’s light stands for the possibility of getting free. The recurring refrain gives the light the weight of a wish, while the verses keep returning to the details of incarceration.0
  8. 8Last Train to ClarksvilleLast Train to ClarksvilleThe Monkees A train to Clarksville gives the singer a deadline for one last meeting. The bright guitar hook almost disguises the singer’s fear that he may never get home, an unease Micky Dolenz has connected to the story of a young man being sent to war.0
  9. 9One After 909One After 909The Beatles The narrator runs to the station and realizes he has the train number wrong. That mix-up suits the impatient little rock-and-roll arrangement. On the Let It Be recording, the rooftop performance makes the missed connection sound as if it’s unfolding on the spot.0
  10. 10Rock Island LineRock Island LineLead Belly The engineer’s exchange with a depot agent opens a story told in speech and song. Listen for the switch from talking to a quickening refrain. The performance makes the railroad sound like a place for clever improvisation.0