Rock Island Line

ROCK ISLAND LINE
 
 
“Rock Island Line”  is an American folk song.  Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a spiritual as early as 1929.  The beginning of the song tells the story of a train operator who smuggles pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock.  The song’s chorus includes:  “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”.  Many artists subsequently recorded it, often changing the verses and adjusting the lyrics.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

“One After 909” definitely sounds like a song from that era.  As quoted in Wikipedia, Paul McCartney has fond memories of this song:  “It’s not a great song but it’s a great favorite of mine because it has great memories for me of John [Lennon] and I trying to write a bluesy freight-train song.  There were a lot of those songs at the time, like ‘Midnight Special’, ‘Freight Train’, ‘Rock Island Line’, so this was the ‘One After 909’; she didn’t get the 909, she got the one after it.” 

 

(June 2015)