Rock Island Line (song)

Ask a question about 'Rock Island Line (song)' Start a new discussion about 'Rock Island Line (song)' Answer questions from other users Full Discussion Forum

The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road
The Rock Island Line is the road to ride
The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road
If you want to ride you gotta ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line

History

• Lonnie Donegan
  Lonnie Donegan
  
  Lonnie Donegan Order of the British Empire was a skiffle musician, possibly the most famous of them all, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name....
  's recording, released in 1955, signalled the start of the UK "skiffle
  Skiffle
  
  Skiffle is a type of folk music with jazz, blues and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments such as the washboard, tea chest bass, kazoo, cigar-box fiddle, musical saw, comb and paper, and so forth, as well as more conventional instruments such as Steel-string guitar and banjo....
  " craze. Donegan "did nothing to credit Lead Belly as the author, even though he simply copied Huddie's entire arrangement". However, although it only featured Donegan, Chris Barber on double bass and washboard
  Washboard
  
  A washboard is a tool designed for hand washing clothing. With mechanized cleaning of clothing becoming more common by the end of the 20th century, the washboard has become better known for its originally subsidiary use as a musical instrument....
   player (Beryl Bryden), it was a band recording so he made no money from it beyond his original session
  Session musician
  
  Session musicians are instrumental performers or vocalists who are available for hire for live performances or recording sessions, as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical ensemble or who have acquired fame in their own right as bandleaders....
   fee.

• Pete Seeger
  Pete Seeger
  
  Peter "Pete" Seeger is an United States folk singer, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene" that topped the charts f...
   recorded a version a cappella while he was chopping wood
  Wood
  
  Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
  , to demonstrate its origins.

Versions

1930s – 40s

• Lead Belly recorded the song at Washington, D.C.
  Washington, D.C.
  
  Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
   on June 22, 1937, the first of many recordings of it he made during his career, the last being live at the University of Texas
  University of Texas at Austin
  
  The University of Texas at Austin is a public university research university located in Austin, Texas, Texas, United States, and is the flagship#University campuses institution of University of Texas System....
   on June 15, 1949.
  "Rock Island Line" appears in the Lead Belly compilation
  Compilation album
  
  A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from multiple recording artists, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, source or subject matter....
   Rock Island Line: Original 1935-1943 Recordings (released 2003 ), among many others.

1950s

• Odetta
  Odetta
  
  Odetta Holmes, , known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement"....
   as part of the duo Odetta and Larry The Tin Angel
  The Tin Angel
  
  The Tin Angel is now the common name for Odetta & Larry's only album, a collection of all their recordings, originally released in 1954 as "Odetta And Larry"....
   1954

• Lonnie Donegan
  Lonnie Donegan
  
  Lonnie Donegan Order of the British Empire was a skiffle musician, possibly the most famous of them all, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name....
   - single (1955)

• Bobby Darin
  Bobby Darin
  
  Bobby Darin was one of the most popular American big band performers and rock and roll teen idols of the late 1950s and early 1960s.Darin performed widely in a range of music genres, including pop, jazz, folk and country....
   - single (1956)

• The Weavers
  The Weavers
  
  The Weavers were an influential American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs and American ballads, selling millions of records at the height of their popularity....
   - The Weavers' Greatest Hits (1957)

• Johnny Cash
  Johnny Cash
  
  Johnny Cash was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Primarily a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll , as well as blues, folk music and Gospel music....
   - Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
  Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
  
  Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar is the debut album of country music singer Johnny Cash, released on 11 October 1957 . The album contained four of his hit singles: "I Walk the Line," "Cry Cry Cry," "So Doggone Lonesome," and "Folsom Prison Blues." It was re-issued on July 23, 2002 as an expanded edition, under the label Varese Vi...
   (1957)

• Milt Okun
  Milt Okun
  
  Milt Okun is an United States arranger and record producer best known as a member of The Belafonte Folk Singers with Harry Belafonte.Okun also recorded several albums of his own in the 1960s....
   - America's Best Loved Folk Songs - Baton BL1203 (1957)

• Johnny Horton
  Johnny Horton
  
  Johnny Horton was an United States country music singer who was most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs" which launched the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s....
   - 1956-1960 (1957)

1960s

• The Brothers Four
  The Brothers Four
  
  The Brothers Four are an United States folk music musical ensemble founded in 1957 in Seattle, Washington. The Brothers Four bear a distinction as one of the longest surviving groups of the late 1950s and early 1960s folk music revival, and perhaps the longest running 'accidental' music act in history....
   - The Brothers Four Song Book CS8497 (1961)

• Stan Freberg
  Stan Freberg
  
  Stanley Victor Freberg is an United States author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director....
   - The Best of Stan Freberg (1963)

• Ramblin Jack Elliot - "Young Brigham" (1968)

1970s

• Harry Belafonte
  Harry Belafonte
  
  Harold George Belafonte, Jr. is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso music" a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s....
   on the LP 11-7701 which was later released on the CDs "All Time Greatest Hits Vol. 3" (07863-59771-2) and "36 All-Time Greatest Hits" (1130-15250-2).
• Johnny Cash - single on the album Rock Island Line (1970) , see image

• John Lennon
  John Lennon
  
  John Winston Ono Lennon, Order of the British Empire was an English Rock music musician, singer, songwriter, artist, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles....
   - acoustic and unreleased version found on the bootleg, The Lost Lennon Tapes.

1980s

• The Knitters
  The Knitters
  
  The Knitters are a Los Angeles-based band who play country music, rockabilly and folk music. At the time of their formation they were pioneers of cowpunk, cowpunk or folk punk, the genre which gradually evolved into alternative country....
   - Poor Little Critter on the Road (1985)
• Mano Negra
  Mano Negra
  
  Mano Negra was a France band fronted by Manu Chao. The band was founded in 1987 by Manu, his brother Antoine, and his cousin Santiago Casariego....
   - Patchanka
  Patchanka
  
  Patchanka is an album by Mano Negra, released in 1988....
   (1988)
• Little Richard
  Little Richard
  
  Rev. Richard Wayne Penniman , better known by the stage name Little Richard, is anAmerican singer, songwriter and pianist. He is considered a key figure in the transition from Rhythm and blues to Rock and roll in the 1950s....
   & Fishbone
  Fishbone
  
  Fishbone is an American alternative rock band that plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk metal and more. The band was formed in 1979 in the ghettos of South Los Angeles Los Angeles by Angelo Moore, also known as "Dr....
   - Folkways: A Vision Shared -- A Tribute To Woody Guthrie And Leadbelly (1988)

1990s

• Devil in a Woodpile
  Devil in a Woodpile
  
  Devil in a Woodpile is a band from Chicago, Illinois, signed to Bloodshot Records....
   (with Jane Baxter Miller) - single (1999)

2000s

• Odetta
  Odetta
  
  Odetta Holmes, , known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement"....
   - Looking for a Home (2001)
• Dan Zanes
  Dan Zanes
  
  Dan Zanes was a member of the popular 1980s band, The Del Fuegos and is currently the front man of the Grammy winning group Dan Zanes and Friends....
   and Friends - Family Dance (2001)

• Eleven Hundred Springs
  Eleven Hundred Springs
  
  Eleven Hundred Springs is a country rock band from Texas. Their influences include Willie Nelson, Buck Owens and Doug Sahm. They are known as one of the few remaining outlaw country bands....
   - Bandwagon (2004)
• Peter Donegan Band - Live at the Elephant (2006)
• Kickin Grass - On The Short Rows (2006)
• The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
  The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
  
  The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band is an original 3 piece American rural blues band from Brown County, IN....
   - The Gospel Album (2007)
• The Yorkshire Teabags
  The Yorkshire Teabags
  
  The Yorkshire Teabags are a Skiffle group, who play a broad range of popular songs in the style of the skiffle groups of the 1950s and are based in the Sheffield area....
   - Have a Cup of Skiffle! (2007)

In popular culture

• Lonnie Donegan
  Lonnie Donegan
  
  Lonnie Donegan Order of the British Empire was a skiffle musician, possibly the most famous of them all, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name....
  's recording of "Rock Island Line" was featured in an advert for the Vauxhall
  Vauxhall Motors
  
  Vauxhall Motors is a UK automobile company. It is a subsidiary of General Motors , and is part of GM Europe. Most current Vauxhall models are right-hand drive derivatives of GM's Opel brand....
   Astra Twintop and Tigra in 2006 in the UK
  United Kingdom
  
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
  .

• The 2005 computer game Civilization IV
  Civilization IV
  
  Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a turn-based strategy Personal computer game released in 2005 and developed by game designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's video game developer Firaxis Games....
   uses the lyric "I fooled you, I fooled you, I got pig iron, I got pig iron, I got all pig iron." when a player successfully gains the Railroad technology; the line is read by Leonard Nimoy
  Leonard Nimoy
  
  Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He is best known for playing the character of Spock on Star Trek: The Original Series, an American television series that ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1969, in addition to reprising the role in several movie sequels....
  .

• The 1999
  1999 in film
  
  The year 1999 in film involved some significant events and was arguably the most successful year for films released in the 1990s. Several new feature films, including Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, The Sixth Sense, new sequel Toy Story 2, first of The Matrix, Disney's animated Tarzan , The Mummy , and the hig...
   film The General's Daughter
  The General's Daughter
  
  The General's Daughter is a 1999 in film starring John Travolta. The Plot concerns the mysterious death of the daughter of a prominent general....
   featured the song in the closing credits.

• There is a book written by Ricky Tomlinson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Tomlinson) called Reading My Arse!: Searching for the Rock Island Line. Amazon describe it as:-

See also

• List of Leadbelly songs
  List of Leadbelly songs
  
  The following is a partial list of songs performed by Lead Belly. Lead Belly, born Huddie Ledbetter, was an American folk and blues musician active in the 1930s and 1940s....
  

External links