Island Hopping Top Ten: Rock Island Line (#8)

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Happy turkey leftovers day #3! It got colder again, making me want to have a turkey sandwich on a warm island somewhere. Of course, every time @JoyDorsey goes on a cruise she makes me want a turkey sandwich on a warm island somewhere. So, in her honor, here’s another song on my list of favorites with “Island” in the title. #8: Rock Island Line - Johnny Cash This song originated, strangely enough, with workers on the Rock Island train line. Imagine that. Legendary folklorist Alan Lomax recorded a group of prisoners singing this song in the early 30s, and from there the song became part of the American folk canon. The list of people who’ve recorded this song over the years include Leadbelly, Lonnie Donegan, the Knitters (an offshoot of the punk band X), and everybody’s favorite American folk singer, Ringo Starr. The version I grew up with was the Sun Records recording by Johnny Cash, so that’s the version that’s presented here. A humorous PS to this: because of songs like this, “Folsom Prison Blues,” and the “Come Along and Ride This Train” segment on his TV show, Cash felt he was getting “pigeonholed” as a singer of train songs. So when Kris Kristofferson told him about a GREAT (“best damn train song ever written” in Kristofferson’s words) train song by a young folk singer out of Chicago and pleaded with Cash to record the song, Cash passed on the song. The song in question was “City of New Orleans.” Even Johnny Cash couldn’t win ‘em all. Rock Island Line Traditional Recorded by Johnny Cash From Johnny Cash With His Hot Blue Guitar, 1957 Get your ticket at the station: