“Train Kept A-Rollin’”  (or “The Train Kept A-Rollin’”) is a song first recorded by American jazz and rhythm and blues musician Tiny Bradshaw in 1951.  The song was included by Led Zeppelin in their early performances as “the New Yardbirds” and was featured as their opening number in Led Zeppelin’s 1968 and 1969 tours, and was included on several bootleg albums.  They later revived it for their final tour “Over Europe” in 1980.  Though a studio version was never recorded by Led Zeppelin, as a solo artist Page recorded, during his Outrider sessions in 1988, a version similar to the Led Zeppelin 1980 version.  (More from Wikipedia)

 

 

 

Many people don’t realize that Led Zeppelin is a successor band to the Yardbirds.  After Keith Relf and Jim McCarty left the Yardbirds in mid-1968, lead guitarist Jimmy Page was about the only bandmember left.  He set about finding new musicians for his next band that was sometimes called the New Yardbirds.  When the four bandmembers in Led Zeppelin started played together, the first song they did was “Train Kept A-Rollin’”.  Jimmy Page recalls of that session (as quoted in Wikipedia):  “We did ‘Train’ . . .  It was there immediately.  It was so powerful that I don’t remember what we played after that.  For me it was just like, ‘Crikey!’  I mean, I’d had moments of elation with groups before, but nothing as intense as that.  It was like a thunderbolt, a lightning flash – boosh!  Everyone sort of went ‘Wow’.” 

 

While Led Zeppelin opened their concerts with “Train Kept A-Rollin’” throughout 1968 and 1969 (and later brought the song back to their shows in 1980), a studio version of the song was never recorded. 

 

(June 2015)