MERLE HAGGARD – My Love Affair with Trains – (Capitol) – 1976

A country album about trains.

Now there is a novel idea.

Just kidding.

From my collection I know Johnny Cash has done an album on trains and so has Hank Snow and there are, I know, many more train albums I don’t have. Individual train songs or songs that reference trains in country music are uncountable.

Trains are part of American life. Musicians, writers and filmmakers have been inspired by them, especially those who dwell on memory, regret and times past.

Perfect for country music and perfect for Merle Haggard.

It’s impossible to separate Merle Haggard’s music from his life. I’m not sure if he ever “rode the rails” (though as a child he lived in a abandoned boxcar) and his father worked with trains but the train has always been in his music, as it is in much of country music. In his work, as it is in most country music, trains are a metaphor for working, leaving, lost love, change, a better land, a better life, the hereafter and any number of other human wants and desires.

No other form of transport has conjured up such imagery as that of the train moving on down the track. There has been no great volume of songs about boats, planes, the segway or even the motorbike. Only the car seems to have a large volume of music associated with it, and tellingly, it seems largely associated with rock music.

Maybe it’s a rural (train) vs the city (car) thing?

Wikipedia: Merle Ronald Haggard (born April 6, 1937) is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville Sound recordings of the same era.

I encourage you to read about Merle if you don’t know anything about him. It makes for an interesting read even if you put aside the fact that he is one of the most influential of all country musicians of the last 50 years.

Merle’s parents were dust bowl refugees who moved from Oklahoma to California in the mid 1930s. Merle grew up in Oildale, a rough working class suburb in working class Bakersfield, California. Bakersfield was home to many migrant workers who came from the midwest, southwest, and west in the 30s looking for a better life. Those migrants brought with them the music of their various regional areas into the melting pot of working people in Bakersfield. Eventually, a new country music sound emerged that incorporated all the regional elements and it came to be known as the “Bakersfield sound”.

Allmusic: Bakersfield was the first genre of country music to rely heavily on electric instrumentation, as well as a defined backbeat — in other words, it was the first to be significantly influenced by rock & roll. Named after the town of Bakersfield, California, where a great majority of the artists performed, the sound was pioneered by Wynn Stewart and popularized by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Using telecaster guitars, the singers developed a clean, ringing sound that stood in direct opposition to the produced, string-laden Nashville sound. The Bakersfield sound became one of the most popular — and arguably the most influential — country genres of the ’60s, setting the stage for country-rock and outlaw, as well as reviving the spirit of honky tonk.

Merle, Buck Owens, Ferlin Husky, C.W McCall, Dallas Frazier, Wynn Stewart and many others came out of this scene.

Allmusic: As a performer and a songwriter, Merle Haggard was the most important country artist to emerge in the 1960s, and he became one of the leading figures of the Bakersfield country scene in the ’60s. While his music remained hardcore country, he pushed the boundaries of the music quite far. Like his idol, Bob Wills, his music was a melting pot that drew from all forms of traditional American music — country, jazz, blues, and folk — and in the process, developed a distinctive style of his own. As a performer, singer, and musician, he was one of the best, influencing countless other artists. Not coincidentally, he was the best singer/songwriter in country music since Hank Williams, writing a body of songs that became classics.

Importantly Merle referred to his past and the shared past of those like him in his music. He, like many other country musicians, wrote many songs but he also recorded many more covers of songs by other artists. Always, though, he seemed to have a bond with the music he recorded. So, apparently, the author isn’t important but the shared experience is.

Merle had many life experiences to draw from.

He is the Johnny Cash that Johnny Cash sang about.

The difference is Johnny sang it and Merle lived it.

Merle, a child of the depression, born of his working parents drifted into petty crime, drugs, and spent his youth in detention centres, before ending up in San Quentin doing a 3 year stretch for robbery. He was a talented musician, saw Johnny Cash perform whilst in jail (in 1958), was rehabilitated and left for an uncertain world in 1960. Manual work, odd jobs and part time music were his life until he cut a record in 1963.

After that he never looked back, but he never forgot either.

He became one the biggest stars in country music being at the forefront of the Bakersfield sound as well as traditional country, western swing, honky tonk, outlaw country and even bluegrass.

This album is something like his 30^th album in just over 10 years and despite the fact that this is quite a personal album, and a concept album, Merle only writes one track. The songs that he has selected though all reflect his own inner vision and hopes. Quite a few of them are touched with regret whilst other contain visions of hope. Clearly they reflect the 1976 US bicentennial celebrations  (1776 – 1976) with it’s celebration of the past and hope for the future. Though here the celebration of the past is shaded with some regret.

The songs are introduced by Merle ruminating on American rail with sound effects to reinforce the feeling of the narrator at one with what he sings about.

The music is a history lesson that is part country music, part folk music and part Jimmie Rodgers (a Merle Haggard childhood idol) with stories about trains, train stations and people who work and live around trains. But, as I’ve said above, the music is also about hopes, aspirations, dreams and dreams unfulfilled.

Oh, and keeping with country LP tradition the sleeve art is totally crappy. Unlike rock, country LP sleeve art was not as important in the scheme of things.

Tracks (best in italics)

• My Love Affair With Trains -(Dolly Parton)- You have to love Dolly. A great lyricist and often covered. For a music (country) often portrayed as redneck it never had any problem in creating female country icons and the males never seemed to have problems in recording tunes written by females. No government grants to address any imbalance needed here. Merle starts the song with a line from his own classic “Mama Tried” …
• Union Station -(Ronnie Reno)- writer and bluegrass musician Reno is the son of bluegrass star Don Reno. Ronnie opened and played back up for Merle (in the Strangers) in the 70s. This song is a great example of a gentle melancholy country ballad. The station of the title is threatened with demolition.
• Here Comes the Freedom Train -(Stephen H. Lemberg)- a cash-in on the US bicentennial, which worked as the song made the country top 10.  This is pure corn but in it’s own way, a hoot. I wish there was more of a raucous country hoedown to it though. The song, as most patriotic American songs of the time, is all inclusive. 

The freedom train is rolling down two hundred years of track

Two hundred years of glory never to turn back

The train is called America your ticket is a dream

That left the torture of freedom for all the world to see

She left the station in Lexington in 1776

And rode to Philadelphia where the liberty bell was fixed

George Washington was the engineer John Adams shovelled coal

And Franklin punched the tickets Tom Jefferson added soul.

• So Long Train Whistle -(Dave Kirby, Lew Quadling)- a beautiful, if slightly maudlin tale of the working man and a working train both about to be retired. This is what country music does best – evocative songs about everyday life. 

Daddy said he’s glad it’s over

But he ain’t foolin’ me

Last night I overheard him singing

This sad old melody.

So long train whistle

So long hmm-hmm

This near generation

Has no need for you or I.

We both served the nation

Long before it learned to fly

Nothing last forever

Now it’s our turn to die.

Lord hear that whistle cry.

• Silver Ghost -(Sterling Whipple)- a slightly other worldly country song much like “Ghost Riders in the Sky”. Apparently based on some mining legend the song has a Marty Robbins type of feel.
• No More Trains to Ride -(Merle Haggard)- a song bemoaning the loss of “hitching the rails”. Evocative.
• Coming and the Going of the Trains -(Red Lane)- a smart song on how the train figures in American history by looking at those people whose lives it affected from it’s first incursions into native American country through to the day when “trucks and planes” are faster and the train engineers are laid off. The idea could have been exploited a little further but this is pretty good.
• I Won’t Give Up My Train -(Mark Yeary)- a sad country lament.
• Where Have All the Hoboes Gone -(Kirby, Danny Morrison)- the songs theme is in the title.
• Railroad Lady -(Jimmy Buffett, Jerry Jeff Walker)- Jimmy and Jerry Jeff! A song about a lady of easy virtue is only loosely (sic) connected with trains. It still fits in with the mood of the album though.
• Hobo -(Kirby, Glenn Martin)- an ode to the hobo, and a cheerful one at that. I don’t know why you would want to be a hobo. Perhaps I’m too urbane. 

And …

The album is a little gentle. It should kick a honky tonkin ass. Still, Merle’s voice is expressive and the songs are good …. I’m keeping it.

Chart Action

US

Singles

1976  Here Comes the Freedom Train  Country Singles #10

Album

1976 Country #7

England

Singles

—

Album

—

Sounds

So Long Train Whistle

Attached

Merle Haggard – So Long Train Whistle 

Silver Ghost

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idrIyyEAT8U

No More Trains to Ride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKKrzS9DLLs

Coming and the Going of the Trains

Attached

Merle Haggard – Coming and the Going of the Trains  

I Won’t Give Up My Train

A new version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nScvxvoIrc

Railroad Lady

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V3XqT-hn5w

Others

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziFI_0Fx5ts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9oXkxPxxhY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyyLzu2lYVQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue9Rq2U_LcE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAFmFsb9XM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSLZux_X46A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l3zM1ko5c0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpjbboA-YU0

Review

http://www.allmusic.com/album/my-love-affair-with-trains-r248953

Bio

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/merle-haggard-p1640

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Haggard

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/inmate-merle-haggard-hears-johnny-cash-play-san-quentin-state-prison

I think this link misses the point about Haggard’s politics but it has good detail:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/rev2006-01-13hh.html

Website

 http://merlehaggard.com/

Trivia

• “In a television appearance with Haggard, Cash recalled one of his trademark prison concerts in San Quentin. Haggard remarked that he’d been there for the concert. When Cash noted that he didn’t recall Haggard being on the bill that day, Haggard replied, “I was in the audience, Johnny.” http://www.city-journal.org/html/rev2006-01-13hh.html
• Merle put out an entire album of songs of Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers and Elvis. Wikipedia: “My Farewell to Elvis” is an album by American country singer Merle Haggard, released in 1977. It reached Number 6 on the Country album chart. The single "From Graceland to the Promised Land" reached number 4 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. The album is a tribute to the music of Elvis Presley”.