This made me recall "Downbound Train," a song I listened to for a bit in college. Especially the way he sang the lyric "then I heard that long whistle whine..." So mournful. But I find trains full of promise. I got off at Union Station at sunrise this morning, and something about walking the outdoor platform between two trains in that early light felt hopeful. I hope you and your family are well, John.
Since childhood when I rode on my first train from New Orleans to South Carolina, trains and their long, lonesome whistles have always stirred my imagination to take flight and dream of travel to new and exciting places. :)
GASP!! Napster?! You were one of *those*? And here I was wasting hard-earned money on outrageously priced CDs! How things change with music, fortunately, or not, if you don’t think every artist has to be vetted on social media first, and when you’re addicted to YouTube, it’s the luck of he algorithm!
Never cared for Springsteen because the music, except for one song, never appealed to me at all, and his manic energy on stage is an acquired taste and so 80s! But he’s a legend of sorts, so give him credit for shaking up pop culture in 1976, same year as Frampton hit it mega-huge.
In fairness to Springsteen I never paid much attention to his “working class New Jersey” lyrics, so who am I to say?
Yeah, but there were multiple rationalizations including the preposterous mantra that “the Internet has got to be free” — free everything — which, of course, quietly disappeared after the dot.com bubble burst. I was working freelance for a health information startup in 1998 that paid me an absurdly high hourly rate for three months and then they just disappeared. Wonder why? Haha
This made me recall "Downbound Train," a song I listened to for a bit in college. Especially the way he sang the lyric "then I heard that long whistle whine..." So mournful. But I find trains full of promise. I got off at Union Station at sunrise this morning, and something about walking the outdoor platform between two trains in that early light felt hopeful. I hope you and your family are well, John.
Thank you!
Since childhood when I rode on my first train from New Orleans to South Carolina, trains and their long, lonesome whistles have always stirred my imagination to take flight and dream of travel to new and exciting places. :)
Here’s a good train song:
https://youtu.be/uIxbPAU-lYs?si=9U4FLcOscdK7iFg9
Is this the “Downbound Train” song you were referring g to?
https://youtu.be/vw3y_WDOgbI?si=QJfnY2WIT9Dl6yIt
Yep, Springsteen. Not my usual genre but I guess we were downloading all kinds of stuff in the Napster days.
GASP!! Napster?! You were one of *those*? And here I was wasting hard-earned money on outrageously priced CDs! How things change with music, fortunately, or not, if you don’t think every artist has to be vetted on social media first, and when you’re addicted to YouTube, it’s the luck of he algorithm!
Never cared for Springsteen because the music, except for one song, never appealed to me at all, and his manic energy on stage is an acquired taste and so 80s! But he’s a legend of sorts, so give him credit for shaking up pop culture in 1976, same year as Frampton hit it mega-huge.
In fairness to Springsteen I never paid much attention to his “working class New Jersey” lyrics, so who am I to say?
For whatever it's worth, I now recognize Napster was just stealing. I probably knew it deep down then too, but it felt too easy.
Yeah, but there were multiple rationalizations including the preposterous mantra that “the Internet has got to be free” — free everything — which, of course, quietly disappeared after the dot.com bubble burst. I was working freelance for a health information startup in 1998 that paid me an absurdly high hourly rate for three months and then they just disappeared. Wonder why? Haha