I've Been Working on the Railroad
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"I've Been Working on the Railroad" is an American folk song. The first published version appeared as "Levee Song" in Carmina Princetonia, a book of Princeton University songs published in 1894.[1] The earliest known recording is by the Sandhills Sixteen, released by Victor Records in 1927.[2]
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[edit] Lyrics
The modern version of the song is:
- I've been working on the railroad
- All the livelong day
- I've been working on the railroad
- Just to pass the time away
- Can't you hear the whistle blowing
- Rise up so early in the morn
- Can't you hear the captain shouting
- Dinah, blow your horn
- Dinah, won't you blow
- Dinah, won't you blow
- Dinah, won't you blow your ho-o-orn
- Dinah, won't you blow
- Dinah, won't you blow
- Dinah, won't you blow your horn
- Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
- Someone's in the kitchen I kno-o-o-ow
- Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
- Strummin' on the old banjo!
- Singin' fi, fie, fiddly-i-o
- Fi, fie, fiddly-i-o-o-o-o
- Fi, fie, fiddly-i-o
- Strummin' on the old banjo
The 1894 version includes a verse very much like the modern song, though in minstrel dialect, but with an intro that is no longer sung, and a second verse with racist lyrics:
- (SOLO) I once did know a girl named Grace--
- (QUARTET) I'm wukkin' on de levee;
- (SOLO) She done brung me to dis sad disgrace
- (QUARTET) O' wukkin' on de levee.
- I been wukkin' on de railroad
- All de livelong day,
- I been wukkin' on de railroad
- Ter pass de time away.
- Doan' yuh hyah de whistle blowin'?
- Ris up, so uhly in de mawn;
- Doan' yuh hyah de cap'n shouin',
- "Dinah, blow yo' hawn?"
- Sing a song o' the city;
- Roll dat cotton bale;
- Niggah aint half so happy
- As when he's out o' jail
- Norfolk foh its oystahshells,
- Boston foh its beans,
- Chahleston foh its rice an' cawn,
- But foh niggahs New Awleens.[3]
The "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" section is actually an older song that has been absorbed by "I've Been Working on the Railroad". It was published as "Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah" in London in the 1830s or '40s, with music credited to J.H. Cave.[4] "Dinah" was a generic name for an enslaved African-American woman.[5] The melody for this section of the song may have been adapted from "Good Night Ladies", written (as "Farewell Ladies") in 1847 by E. P. Christy.[6]
According to the liner notes to Pete Seeger's Children's Concert at Town Hall (1963), the "Dinah won't you blow" section is a more modern addition, contributed to the song by "some college students".[7]
[edit] In popular culture
- The air of the song is used in Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie when Itchy becomes a train driver.
- In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Virtuoso" (series 6, episode 13), the song is the first music ever heard by an alien species; it is sung to them by The Doctor.
- In the movie Kelly's Heroes, the tank commanded by Oddball (Donald Sutherland) plays the tune while attacking a German-held railyard.
- "The Eyes of Texas", a fight song by the University of Texas band, is played to the tune of this song.
[edit] Used in Japan
The tune is a familiar one in Japan, used at the stations on the Hanshin Electric Railway Lines (except Umeda Station) to announce arriving trains. It is similarly used at Okayama Station on the West Japan Railway Company.
[edit] Notes
- ^ James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, 4th ed. (Dover, 1996), p. 309; cited at Mudcat Cafe.
- ^ "I've Been Working on the Railroad", Traditional Ballad Index.
- ^ Carmina Princetonia: The Princeton Song Book, 21th ed. (G Shirmer, 1927), pp. 70-71; cited at Mudcat Cafe.
- ^ Fuld, p. 513-514; cited at Mudcat Cafe.
- ^ Footnote 3 to "Women's Rights Convention", The New York Herald, October 26, 1850; U.S. Women's History Workshop.
- ^ Fuld, pp. 255-256; cited at Mudcat Cafe.
- ^ Liner notes, Pete Seeger's Children's Concert at Town Hall, Columbia Records, 1963; reissued 1990.
[edit] External links
- Discussion of "Someone in the Kitchen with Diana" [sic] at Mudcat Cafe
