The Songs about Trains show was great fun for me. Broadcasting live on StageIt usually goes off without a hitch. However, on a long enough timeline, technical difficulties are inevitable. My apologies to anyone whose feed dropped out mid-show. For some, it did not. So my assumption is that the error was attributable to something outside of my control.
Doing a themed show invited light research about the topic. Did you know that the term “train” comes from the French verb, traine, which means “to drag”? And, back in the 1800’s, people actually thought that their bodies would melt if they traveled at over 50 miles per hour. And–one more factoid–ghost trains run in the United Kingdom because the cost of abandoning old lines is more expensive than running an empty train every now and then.
The set list was a mix of cover songs and original songs:
Crime Scene Part One (originally performed by The Afghan Whigs)
Gone, Gone, Gone
Driver 8 (originally performed by R.E.M.)
Seminole Train
Manic Monday (originally performed by the Bangles and written by Prince)
Slow Moon Rising
Interstate Love Song (originally performed by Stone Temple Pilots)
The Original Pullman Palace Car Dream
Ghost Train (originally performed by Counting Crows”
Where’s the A Train?
Jumping Someone Else’s Train (originally performed by The Cure)
Don’t Stop Believin’ (originally performed by Journey)
I’ll return to StageIt the first Saturday in June. Stay tuned for an announcement with details. This show and the preceding StageIt show will be available, in audio form, in the Community later this month.
Mike Garrigan shares four previously unreleased outtakes from Semigloss Albatross: "Welcome to Oblivion," "Still Burning," "The Stranger," and "Riptide." Mike also explores a brief history of music formatting.
I hope you’ll join me for my show on StageIt on Saturday, May 1 at 9 pm EDT. I’ll be playing songs about trains and only songs about trains. It’ll be the most fun you can have at an online show that’s only about trains.
As I songwriter, I only have four songs that concern trains. As such, I’ll be doing six or seven cover songs that feature trains.
What are your favorite songs about trains? Please let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter. Here is a list of my favorite songs about trains.
Jumping Someone Else’s Train
Originally released as a single near the time The Cure’s debut album, Three Imaginary Boys, was released, “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” was later incorporated into the US repackaged album, Boy’s Don’t Cry. I first heard “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” on the Staring at the Sea double length cassette, which featured early singles and b-sides by The Cure. This cassette was required listening for all seventh graders . . . at least the one’s I hung out with.
Driver 8
If there’s a better song about trains, I haven’t heard it.
Interstate Love Song
Admittedly, this song features only limited train imagery, but I think it still counts.
Train Kept a Rollin’
I’m partial to the Aerosmith version of this classic, originally performed by Tiny Bradshaw and perfected by the Yardbirds.
Manic Monday
OK, so this barely counts, but Ms. Hoffs does sing about having “to catch an early train” in the second verse. Great track. True fact: Prince wrote this song. I particularly like the dark bridge lyrics–somehow they get obscured by the bright production. But that’s one of the many things that makes this song totally awesome.
A “cover song” or “cover version” is music industry lingo for performing a song originally released by another artist. The source of the word “cover,” when referring to a remake, is unclear. The term probably comes from when upcoming artists would perform a new version of a popular song in an effort to “cover up” the original wherever the song appeared in sheet music stores or in record bins.
Personally, I like cover versions. A cover song allows a band to showoff its influences, to comment on or reinterpret a popular song, and/or to reach a wider audience. While rare, sometimes a cover song improves upon the original version to the point where even the original artist acknowledges the improvement.
What follows is a list of my favorite cover songs.
“Enjoy the Silence” by Failure
I saw Failure a few times on the Fantastic Planet tour. One show was at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. In the encore, Failure played a completely reimagined version of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence.” This version would go on to be featured on the For the Masses Depeche Mode tribute album. This is one of the few recordings I recall listening to well over a hundred times in a row. To me, it’s that good. There is also an “Enjoy the Silence 2020” version that sounds like, at least, a remix or possibly a re-tracking of the original recording that was released on For the Masses. Both are excellent.
“Wild Horses” by The Sundays
If you went to high school in the early 90s and hung out with the alternative crowd, you couldn’t avoid hearing the first album by The Sundays, a band from England that had a few hits on college radio. On the very end of their second album, The Sundays delivered one of the most original and captivating cover versions I have ever heard. Harriet Wheeler and company perform a haunting version of “Wild Horses” originally performed by the Rolling Stones. Wheeler’s voice has an earnestness that crushes me completely.
“All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix
About a year after Bob Dylan released “All Along the Watchtower” on John Wesley Harding, Jimi Hendrix released his cover version on Electric Ladyland. The Hendrix double album is his most creative and expressive record. His interpretation of Dylan’s original is so good that even Dylan felt that Hendrix improved upon “Watchtower.”
“Radar Love” by White Lion
Growing up, White Lion was one of my favorite bands. Personally, I think Pride is one of the best albums ever recorded. Near the end of side two of their third album, Big Game, White Lion covered Golden Earring’s “Radar Love.” The band fires on all cylinders with this true to form cover. Bonus: it also features one of Vito Bratta’s best guitar solos. D’Angelo’s drum break is pretty hot, too.
“Rock On” by Def Leppard
Def Leppard will always be one of my favorite bands. The opening riff of “Photograph” sealed that deal along time ago. In 2006, Def Leppard released an album of covers. One song was “Rock On” by David Essex. They captured something cool and creative in their recording, so much so that I have a hard time not listening to it on repeat once I put it on.
Gotta question? Ask Mike on Twitter at @mikegarrigan001 or leave a question in the comments below.
Back in October of 2020, I did a show on StageIt.com that consisted completely of songs from my 1996 album, The Lessons of Autumn, and my 2002 album, The Promise of Summer. In the spirit of promoting my most recent album, Semigloss Albatross, I performed the entire show on the piano. The show, called Equinox, Part One, is now available in the Mike Garrigan Community.
The setlist is:
Birthday Song
Rusted Radio
October
She Alone
When I Was Five
Sigourney Weaver
Oceans
God Lives in My Backyard
Milestone
Don’t Fade Away
The Lessons of Autumn
I hope you enjoy listening to the show as much as I enjoyed performing it.
Mike Garrigan shares the meaning behind the many symbols located on the Semigloss Albatross gatefold. This episode features "Sailing to Byzantium" and "Semigloss Albatross" from Semigloss Albatross.
