(00:00:04) And good afternoon. Welcome back to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten. Glad you could join us this week marks the 150th birthday of the Rock Island line on October 10th, 1852 the first train of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad traveled from Chicago to Joliet, Illinois two years later. It would bring a delegation of East Coast journalists and dignitaries to the Mississippi River as part of the grand Excursion to Minnesota over the next 50 years as The Rock Island grew it carried passengers and Freight through 14 States and became part of the story the American West when the railroad expanded into the South it inspired a song that has been passed down from generation to Generation Now sort of public radio's Jim bikal has traced the history of the song and the railroad and how they fit into the story of America and its music and during this hour. A midday, he tells us the story of The Rock Island line a mighty good road. There's no telling what we'll turn up when you investigate where something came from that's how this project began as an exploration of the story behind a favorite song. It was recorded in 1988 in Los Angeles, California, David Cohn of Columbia Records produced it for a tribute album featuring the music of folk Legends, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly the song Led bellies Rock Island line was one that kanu. Well (00:01:32) near the song cause I used to play it in a folk group that I had when I was in (00:01:36) college, the singer was someone Khan and admired but never worked with before rock legend Little Richard Khan says, he was excited about the collaboration because it was a chance to work with one of rock and roll's defining (00:01:48) figures to me. He was the first guy that I heard that you knew that there was blues and gospel and what he did but he sang with a kind of abandoned that felt like it was rock and roll He you know meant a lot to me when I was little this tasteless news records and just never heard a sound like that before just to a so raging. I just thought it was (00:02:09) amazing that amazing energy was the inspiration for cons arrangement of the Rock Island line at the time Khan was working primarily with young emerging artists. And that's who we brought into play behind Little Richard on the song. (00:02:22) I didn't really hire Studio musicians, but just people from different bands that I knew like fish bone and actually the drummer from his bone is the guy they got to play drums on it and they were all pretty aggressive bands and I knew that Richard, you know, obviously he's the rock guy. So let's kind of went and it was aggressive of away as I could without making a song sound stupid or like a punk song or (00:02:46) something Little Richard was 55 years old at the time of the recording and was more or less retired from the music business devoting most of his energy to his work as an Evangelical Minister con recalls that Richard was a little apprehensive at first. (00:03:00) He came in I don't know if nervous is the right word, but he was just being very cautious and he sat at the console and listen to the song over and over again. So I got a Mike and I started singing the song standing next to him and then I gave him a mic and he started singing along gradually and then pretty soon. He was just singing the whole song many had a great time if he was going off, you know, he had some really cool notes in there (00:03:38) with this joyous and passionate interpretation of an old American folk song Little Richard demonstrates the enduring Spirit the music he helped Define 30 years before in an interview for a Showtime documentary about the making of the record Little Richard describe (00:03:54) the atmosphere in the recording studio that day Rock Island line was a beautiful song for me to record. And when I got here and we got together on that thing I tell you was a it was a father. It was a living flame. It was a burning fire. But you gonna miss me when I'm gone. (00:04:42) This program is the result of a journey that set out to discover what it was that little Richard set Ablaze on this recording. Well, it turns out that he is one of many artists who have interpreted and reinterpreted The Rock Island line since it was discovered in a Southern prison 70 years ago. And the song is named for a real-life Railroad and the railroad is named for an island. That is truly made of (00:05:06) rock. And that is where our Story begins. This rock actually a (00:05:16) big chunk of limestone three miles long and a half mile wide became an island about 20,000 years ago. When the last Glacier of the last ice age changed the course of the Mississippi River Richard Anderson is a retired geologist who lives in Rock Island, Illinois (00:05:32) previously, the Mississippi turned to the southeast and the upper end of Rock Island County, perhaps 30 miles north of Rock Island and flowed Southeast to what is now the Illinois River and that course was blocked by glacial ice that came out of Lake Michigan that ice kind of deployed across the northeastern part of the state and blocked the old course of the Mississippi and diverted it past. What is now Rock Island and the Quad City (00:06:05) area the new course of the river cut a Gorge through the Limestone Bedrock of the Quad City area within the gorge the river split into two channels around what is now Iraq. Island Anderson says among the hundreds of islands in the Mississippi. It is the only true Rock Island unlike most islands in the (00:06:22) Mississippi which are alluvial material that is deposited by the river itself as sandbars and silt and so forth. (00:06:32) These are constantly shifting. (00:06:35) But Rock Island is a Rock Island and it stays where it is (00:06:41) today. There are no other Rock islands in the Mississippi because over many years the flowing Waters of the river would have gradually washed them away. But Anderson says this Rock Island is still here because it is in a relatively young part of the river. It's here because this segment (00:06:59) of the river that flows past Rock Island is a new section of the river. The river has flowed through this segment only for about 20,000 years (00:07:10) the sock Indians gave the island its name ass in amenas their word. Rocky Rock Island, the sock didn't live on the island, but they did use it as a setting for Spiritual ceremonies when the United States Army took control of this area after the disputed Treaty of 1804. The island was recognized for its strategic value. Gina chance is a local historian. She says the Army decided the island was the perfect place to build a fort several reasons one the government was establishing a line of communication on the Mississippi River, which was essentially the western boundary of the United States at that time. Second (00:07:47) of all Rock Island was within (00:07:49) three miles of the most notorious and hostile Indian tribe in the United States at the time and that were the sock chance is writing a biography of the first permanent resident of the island. George Davenport was brought in by the Army in 1816 to acquire supplies for the Fort Davenport became a very successful entrepreneur and helped establish several towns including Davenport, Iowa in 1839. He was Involved in the effort to improve the country's Transportation links in the early part of the 19th century. Most of those improvements involved making Rivers easier to navigate or digging canals, but Davenport saw the potential of a transportation system that wasn't restricted to waterways. (00:08:31) I think George had a vision (00:08:33) of the railroad very early on Railroad was not a fashionable project until after the panic of 1837 and then suddenly the canals which had been such a rage mainly because of the Erie Canal sort of lost favor finally people realize that they required a great deal of Maintenance and a lot of money in order to make them worthwhile. And so I think he was looking at the railroad very early on is something that would get them away from being bound by the rivers in 1845 Davenport invited a group of local businessmen to his home on Rock Island to discuss investing in a project that would link the Mississippi River. With the Great Lakes for the first time a railroad from Rock Island to Chicago the men embraced the idea, but Davenport would not live to see it become reality one month after that meeting on Sunday, July 4th George decided to skip church. Unfortunately for him. It was also a day thieves had picked to Rob his house. They knew that on the fourth of July. The family would be going to the Sabbath Day Celebrations and would be gone for the whole day what they didn't realize was that George stayed home that day. So when they broke into the house they found him in his sitting room gun that they had accidentally went off shot him in the thigh created a terrific wound about 11 inches long and George lived a few hours into the evening and then he died of probably shock and blood loss The Death of George Davenport didn't stop the Rock Island line a charter was approved by the, Illinois legislature. 1847 and the first train ran on October 10th 1852 by that time just about anybody with a few bucks to spare was looking for a way to get into the railroad business one analogy would be about like the.com industry. Everybody was going to build a railroad from here to there and do a better job of it. Al Zimmer is a student of railroad history and The Rock Island line in particular. So there were an awful lot of railroads that were planned that never built more than a couple of miles or didn't do anything except has raised some money The Rock Island line survived the early volatile years of the railroad era in part because it was the first railroad to send a train across the Mississippi River in the 1850s building a river bridge that could support the weight of a train was a challenge. But Zimmer says it was a little easier for this railroad because of Rock Island the easiest place to build it was to make a stop there on the Rock Island island in the middle of the river and go The Iowa sort of hop skip and jump across the river you might say in April of 1856 a two-part Bridge with Rock Island in the middle was completed. And for the first time trains were able to cross the Mississippi River and bring crops from the farm fields of Iowa directly to Chicago in the Great Lakes, but just one month after the Bridge opened a steamboat called the Fe Afton was traveling upriver from st. Louis on its way to st. Paul exactly. What happened when the Fe afternoon reach. The Rock Island Bridge is a local mystery. Well was passing under the bridge for some reason or other it got twisted around hit the piers on the bridge, of course, they had lanterns and kerosene lamps and things like this and the bridge caught fire. There was a lot of damage done to the bridge and took an extended period of restore it even at the time that the instant occurred there was much speculation in the local newspapers as weather was an accident or an (00:12:13) intentional Arson, let us let us say (00:12:17) the speculation was that the Steam Boat Owners wanted the bridge to burn because the railroads were taking away their customers. The arson charge was never proven but the owners of the Fe Afton did Sue The Rock Island Bridge Company charging that the bridge was a hindrance to navigation and should be torn down in addition. The steamboat interests ask the court to prohibit all future bridges on the river to protect their interests The Rock Island Railroad hired an Illinois lawyer by the name of Abraham, Lincoln Lincoln was widely known in the 1850s as a very prominent attorney in the state of Illinois. John Lupton is an editor with the Lincoln legal papers a project that is chronicling Abraham Lincoln's 25-year legal career, and he was beginning to specialize in railroad litigation. He had handled numerous cases for the Illinois Central Railroad, and he also had a number of cases on the opposite side of railroads. He personally saw that railroads were an important contribution to the Transformation of America from a subsistence economy to a market economy. Lupton says one of the things that made Lincoln a good lawyer was how well he prepared for a case Lincoln was what you would call a case lawyer which means he studied really hard when a case came before him. So when this came before him, he actually went to Rock Island itself and did some examination there of the bridge and how the water was flowing between the piers and this was very typical of Lincoln preparing for case. He was a very slow and methodical thinker when he went to Rock Island Lincoln examined the bridge and the river and took some of his own measurements and he studied a survey of the rapids near the Bridge completed in 1837 by Lieutenant Robert E Lee of the US Army Corps of Engineers. At the trial Lincoln made a strong case that the boat was at fault not the bridge and it steamboats and railroads could share the river in his closing arguments. He talked about the importance of rail to the future of America. He said it is growing larger and larger building up new countries with the rapidity never seen before in the history of the world the trial ended in a hung jury, which meant that the bridge could stay. It was a victory for the Rock Island Railroad and for Lincoln his work on that case and others would help put him in a position to run for president three years later. I think another reason why he wanted to get involved with this case is that he saw that there was a lot of money to be made there when you're dealing with entire business interest competing against each other. There's going to be a lot of money going into battling in these lawsuits and Lincoln saw it as a way to make a little tidy sum for himself. He had spent most of 1856 campaigning for the Republican party, which takes him away from his legal business. So he saw this as a way to Kind of fill his coffers back up as President Lincoln pushed for completion of a Transcontinental Railroad. And when it was done in 1869 The Rock Island line was one of the links connecting the East and West coasts for the first time. It also played a prominent role in the story of the West. It was the first railroad to be robbed by the Jesse James gang and it lost Depot in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 despite the setbacks. It continued to grow and brought many of the first settlers to the newly open territory of Oklahoma in 1889 by the beginning of the 20th century The Rock Island line was one of the most successful railroads in the western half of the country was service in 14 States. The last state to become part of the line was Arkansas, and it was here that it inspired a song. (00:16:03) Gotta ride it like a pine buy your ticket at the station on a lock on (00:16:11) what we know where the Rock Island Railroad came from the exact origin of the song is a mystery. There's no official connection between the railroad in the song. It was not written as a jingle or for publicity and there's no record of when or where it was conceived. What we do know is that it's a traditional work song the kind sung by African Americans in the South the kind that was passed from singer to singer orally music historian. Charles wolf says that while nothing is certain there are Clues to suggest that it originated around the beginning of the 20th century in Arkansas. (00:16:44) We do know this that there was a Rock Island railroad line that ran through Arkansas to Memphis and that they built a big wine to do that and it seems to me quite likely that this song might have originated as Worked in the in the heavy forests in the area of our Southern Arkansas as they worked building the line toward Memphis that this song could well have originated that far (00:17:15) back the first known recording of the Rock Island line was made in 1934 by the famed folklorist John Lomax Lomax who son Alan would also become a well-known musical actor spent most of his life on the road in pursuit of original American folk songs. He went from Cowboy cattle drives to Lumberjack camps to Southern prisons recording songs and interviewing the singers by the time of his death in 1948 Lomax had collected thousands of (00:17:44) songs. (00:18:10) Folk singer Pete Seeger new John Lomax Seeger says Lomax did more than just collect the (00:18:15) music. Oh Max was one of the first collectors who very frankly wanted to give the songs back to the people many collectors collect just so they can make their private little collection and get it on their private shelves J Frank. Don't be a great collector of folk story says a lot of collectors just dig up dead bones from one graveyard in order to bury them in another but John Lomax wanted to give songs back to the people (00:18:44) one way that Lomax gave the songs back to the people was on recordings issued by the Library of Congress. Charles wolf says the Lomax recordings are invaluable to anyone interested in learning about the evolution of American music. (00:18:56) Nobody had done it on the scale a little Max did and nobody had lomax's relase. In the hole, which was this wonderful recording machine that he had borrowed from the Library of Congress. And when I say recording machine remember that back in these days, there was no tape recording. The recorders were all big disc cutting machines. They weren't very easily portable. Lomax is set took up most of the trunk of his car and it was big bulky cumbersome difficult to use but it was the only thing he had and because he was able to not only collect the songs and interview the informants but also actually make a record of the songs. His work is immediately what strikes us today as the most interesting and the most (00:19:51) useful in the 1930s. John Lomax was especially interested in collecting African-American music and he felt that prisons were the perfect place to find the kind of untainted music. Is looking for he got the idea (00:20:06) that since the 20th century was changing the landscape of music so quickly with mass media and records and radio that the older styles that had once been preserved in the mountains or in the case of cowboy songs in their remote Ranch camps (00:20:26) that for (00:20:27) African-Americans this preservation might have worked best in prisons. So he decided that people who had been locked up in prison for maybe a generation or so would be basically preserving unchanged a lot of the older black folk music (00:20:46) and so Lomax went from prison to prison asking inmates to sing the traditional songs for him and it was in a prison near Little Rock Arkansas that John Lomax first heard and recorded the Rock Island line. (00:21:06) My (00:21:22) but it wasn't John Lomax would take the Rock Island line and make it part of the American folk tradition the man who did that was working as lomax's assistant on the day. This recording was made he had been hired to fill in for lomax's son Allen who was usually the one enlisted to help out on these recording Expeditions, but Alan was Ill at the time. So his father hired a man. He had met the year before at the state prison in Angola, Louisiana. His name was Hugh D Ledbetter, but he would eventually become well known by his prison nickname Leadbelly. Leadbelly been imprisoned at Angola since 1930 after his conviction for assault. He had been imprisoned twice before including once for murder Charles wolf is the author of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, he says Leadbelly lived in a violent (00:22:09) world when he was 16 years old. Let Billy's father gave him two things. He thought he would need to make it in the world. One of them was a horse and the other was a pistol and Leadbelly was proud to have both of them. He was a hot-tempered young man. And he was a violent man and he lived in a violent Society. You have to remember that the area that Leadbelly lived in West Texas Northwest Louisiana that area was in many ways the Last Frontier when Leadbelly grew up there at the turn of the century people still wore side arms as they walk the It was very much yet a part of the old west and people were very quick to draw down and fire and shooting and knife fights were not at all uncommon and he was part of this violent (00:23:10) World John Lomax was willing to look past lead belly's criminal record because of his talent as a musician Lomax had heard many singers over the years, but when he heard Leadbelly he knew this one was something special (00:23:23) Lomax was impressed with Leadbelly, not only because he knew so many different songs, but because you really was a good singer Lomax didn't let the fact that an informant was a good singer get in the way of preserving a song but if you did find somebody who was a good singer and who also knew a lot of songs then that was a real bonus and Leadbelly could actually sing on key. He actually had a wonderful You were the song he was a fine guitar player and he was superb (00:24:00) Entertainer on his visit to the Angola prison in 1933 and another visit a year later Lomax recorded Leadbelly for the first time singing songs that he would make famous songs like The Midnight (00:24:12) Special John. Come on. run (00:24:17) away the legend of the Midnight Special is that a train would pass the prison each day at midnight and his head light would flash through the bars and into the prison Superstition was that if the light Shone on you that meant that you would be the next man to get out of (00:24:32) prison. Nothing midnight Fair young Kevin Love lot on me when I get up in the (00:24:45) morning Leadbelly saw John Lomax as his Midnight Special his way to get out of Angola. He asked Lomax to record a song. He had written a plea to Louisiana. Governor. Okay, Alan to release him from prison. (00:25:03) And (00:25:12) that Billy asked Lomax to deliver the recording to Governor Allen at the end of the song Leadbelly made sure to tell the governor his given name and exactly where he could be found in prison. (00:25:22) Now, this song is composed of about 30 Ledbetter own and goal at campy on the captain real rather than admonished Road Louisiana King of the 12 string guitar. (00:25:36) It's unclear whether the song actually got him out of prison, but Leadbelly was pardoned a few months later in the fall of 1934. He was hired by John Lomax as they went from prison to prison looking for singers and songs Leadbelly was valuable in a number of ways (00:25:52) Leadbelly did the driving he took care of the carrying end of the recording equipment. He took care of the car getting gassed and Honored when they went into a prison Leadbelly would start off by kind of singing some songs to prime the pump. The other inmates would hear him and they would basically say, oh that's the kind of stuff you want. Well, I know that song Or I know a version of that (00:26:23) song in September of 1934 Lomax and Leadbelly were touring prisons in Arkansas. It was here that they both heard the Rock Island line for the first time. In fact, they heard it twice in two different prisons just a few weeks apart. The first time was at a state prison in Little (00:26:39) Rock (00:26:49) that occasion Lomax didn't bother to write down the names of the singers in his notes. He simply referred to them as a group of convicts. But when he heard the song again a few weeks later at Cummins farm near Gould Arkansas, the performance was more polished and made a bigger impression on Lomax in his 1947 autobiography Adventures of a ballad Hunter Lomax describes how excited the prisoners were to get their songs recorded. He writes down the road and around the bend ran at top speed a group (00:27:19) of laughing shouting convicts with the guard loping behind a shotgun braced against his saddle pointing straight up at (00:27:27) last these exalting boys were to (00:27:30) get on that machine. They came up panting from their wild (00:27:33) race soon a picked group gathered about the microphone and (00:27:38) sang. It has made it back to the rocket. If you want to ride you got to ride it like a find buy your ticket at the station on the Rock on (00:28:07) the lead singer of this group was a prisoner named Kelly Pace who was doing five years for burglary while Lomax preserved Paces song in the recording machine Leadbelly added it to the collection of songs in his mind in 1937 when he was asked to make a recording for the Library of Congress Leadbelly used the rock on the line as an example of how a song could help a team of workers, but the rhythm of a job like chopping wood (00:28:33) one man on one side one on the east man got a Polack and this man who cut right hand. He step on the other side. The one is left hand. He's right over next time but it on the other side be cutting the same chip. You can't cut your ass in there and leave it. You got to pick it up and really what the story is I cut on you bring up is the gold and this year the song the boys say, oh they're not I like the gold or Iraq are aligned go to rise for another land. But if the Lord is God who died you gotta run like a college. Did you see get anything? You don't know (00:29:12) by the time he started performing The Rock Island line in front of live audiences Leadbelly had transformed it from a call-and-response work song to a solo performance accompanied by guitar Pete Seeger says, this is an example of lead belly's ability to hear a song and make it his own (00:29:28) let Billy over the next 15 years or so gave it more of a melody and with his big 12 string guitar some wonderful Harmony and accompaniment and is no wonder that the song is now known as one of the greatest of the African American prison songs are there are gonna land it's money groom or the rock on a line. It's a role to ride or the rock on a line. It's a money good rude. If you want to ride you got to ride it like find it. Continue that tradition honor. I got Lala (00:30:00) John Lomax brought Leadbelly to the east coast and arrange for a series of public appearances shortly after they arrived in New York sensationalize version of lead belly's life story appeared in the New York Herald Tribune, the headline read sweet singer of the swamplands here to do a few Tunes between homicides. He was billed as a negro Minstrel from the Deep South while Lomax helped cultivate this Public Image. He was also concerned that Urban audiences would have trouble understanding lead belly's music. (00:30:31) Hello Max felt that Leadbelly songs were too raw and too esoteric and too detailed for the average listener to understand they made reference to two things that were so alien to middle-class white American Wife that he felt the general audience wouldn't understand it so he began to ask Leadbelly to explain certain things about the songs before you would sing them and to make little (00:31:04) presentations and so Leadbelly began using stories to introduce some of his songs in 1944. He added a Prelude to the Rock Island line. It's the story of a train approaching a Depot the engineer signals the depot agent that he doesn't have to stop and pay a toll because his cargo is live (00:31:23) animals and rock online training out in uline's coming back this way. That Depot agent gonna throw that switch boat over the track that mean that rock online trains got to go in the hole. That man don't want to stop that train. He going to talk to the depot agent with his whistle. And this is what he going to tell him how I got horses. I got home. I got cheap. I got goats. I got old life stuff. I got old life. Stop that devoid and gonna that trained by when that rock online train get by that ain't in Yemen going to talk back to the depot agent with his whistle. And this is what it going to tell him. I thank you. I thank you. I thank you. I don't rock online train is getting on dining room. Well the rock on a line (00:32:35) at some point Leadbelly change the end of the story. So instead of thanking the depot agent as he passes. Engineer taunts him by revealing that he is not carrying livestock but a commodity that should have required him to stop and pay the toll the cargo is a low-grade partially refined or known as pig (00:32:53) iron. I got out. I got old Pig on I've got Opie got a rock a (00:33:01) line from then on Leadbelly would always include the amusing tale of the toll skipping train whenever he would sing The Rock Island line, but over the years people have wondered where the story came from in the first place. Well, it appears to go back to the days in the middle of the 19th century. When The Rock Island line was just getting started at that time canals were still a popular way to transport Commodities to Market and the states that had invested in digging canals made their money back and then some by collecting tolls from the barges that use the canals when the railroads came along they often wanted to build their tracks right next to the canal some state governments work. Certain that the cargo would move to the trains and cut into their Canal profits. So they required that the trains pay tolls on Commodities that could have gone on the canal but livestock didn't use the canal rather than load animals onto barges pulled by mules. It was more efficient to simply walk them to Market since they weren't competing with the canals trains carrying livestock. Didn't have to pay (00:34:05) tolls. I got cheese. I got gold. I got all lies, (00:34:14) but the tolls were not collected at a tollbooth. The railroads actually sent a check to the state based on how many trains they said were carrying the items subject to the tolls overtime lawmakers became skeptical of the numbers that the railroads were reporting to them suggesting that the number of trains reportedly carrying livestock was being inflated (00:34:39) I got on I got all key guys. I got all Pig. I got a rock out of line and moving (00:34:50) that recording is from a live performance Leadbelly made in June of nineteen Forty Nine and it was one of his last he died six months later from ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease though. He never achieved Commercial Success during his lifetime. He did leave behind a huge catalog of songs that would Inspire generations of singers. You're listening to the Rock Island line a mighty good road here on Minnesota Public Radio to see and hear more about the song and the railroad that inspired it go to our website, Minnesota Public Radio (00:35:22) dot-org. The rock out of line is a mighty good Volvo to say that arson glory to God. We're gonna need him again. Pete Seeger's group The Weavers (00:35:51) performed and recorded a number of Lead Belly songs, including the Rock Island line and they had a big hit with his song Goodnight Irene in 1950 the performer who would make a hit record out of the Rock Island line was a Scotsman named Lonnie Donegan when he recorded in 1954 Donegan was virtually unknown. You played the banjo in the Chris Barber jazz band one of a handful of New Orleans style jazz groups that were a popular attraction in clubs around London at the time during Mrs. A tradition to develop that when the jazz band took a (00:36:27) break a smaller (00:36:28) group led by Donegan playing (00:36:30) guitar would sing a (00:36:31) set of American folk (00:36:32) song with an upbeat Tempo. Donegan says it all started with an interest in the roots of jazz being interested in the Jazz. I was also interested in the origins of the Jazz which is all the app American folk musics and so on and playing the banjo and guitar. It was very simple to get involved in strumming the guitar and singing the blues and folk songs, very sings ballads, which we did for our own amusement and education as it were this drifted onto the stage, you know by means of the boys going off for a beer and me getting up singing and it became, you know popular spot for the customers (00:37:18) Donegan says while these songs came from American folk music they were different in several ways. (00:37:24) First and foremost it is American folk music and because I was involved in jazz, which is also another form of American folk music everything I sang had a little tinge of jazz influence in it. Now that was it wasn't just pure Folk Music wasn't a reiteration of what I'd already heard. We had added something to it made it a little bit different because of the Jazz input also not not being America being Scottish stroke Irish. I suppose that also made a difference to the delivery when it (00:37:58) came when asked what they called this music one of the players came up with the term skiffle Jazz McDevitt started playing in a skiffle group in the 50s. He is the author of skiffle The Definitive inside story. He says the word was first used in Northern American cities to describe the sound created at informal gatherings in which musicians played homemade instruments often with the goal of raising money to help someone. Is (00:38:24) rent all this is American origin. Really? I mean, it happened in the in America in the 20s and 30s all these the rent parties and things like that where people would just pick up any instruments that were hanging around. It harks back to those days (00:38:38) when Decca records brought the Chris Barber band into the studio to record their Jazz. They also recorded some of donegan's skiffle Music one of the songs that Donegan reformed along with Chris Barber on base and Barrel Bryden playing the washboard was the Rock Island (00:38:53) line at issue the story about the Rock Island. Rock Island railroad line and it runs down into New Orleans Just outside a New Orleans is a big tall guy. You know, the trains are go through the toll gate why you gotta get me some (00:39:12) money. Let's of course. I got certain things on (00:39:15) board in D. Okay. They don't have to pay nothing. It's probably the the archetype example of Afro American folk song. I've got everything in it, you know from the rest of the chief at the beginning which is now called rapmon, you know to a gradual Etc accelerator and oh they say and excitement and tension and also had a little story there with it. It's got everything you would want from a focus on (00:40:05) including Donegan by becoming a pop hit. Why is he on the British charts all the way to number 9 Donegan was suddenly a star. He left the jazz band and formed his own skiffle group. He went on a tour of America and play. On the Perry Como show Donegan followed it with a few more hits but he says it was the Rock Island line that changed his (00:40:26) life. Well change it absolutely from being a little banjo players in the back of a jazz band to being the biggest starting that (00:40:33) really and it introduced skiffle music to a much wider audience lifted the attention from just being a (00:40:41) niche Jazz situation into the general Public's View and they you know, mr. Mrs. Jones sitting at home listening to radio had never heard any of this before this they don't they don't got a jazz clubs. I didn't hear rock on lightening about it and suddenly here's this guy on the television and in the radio and on the local theaters, smashing on a guitar jumping up and down screaming and every what the hell is that and the kids loved it. And so they all rushed out and bought $10 guitars and and copied every thing I did (00:41:17) Jazz McDevitt says it wasn't long Before England was in the midst of a skiffle craze. (00:41:22) Well some of the hit everybody started buying guitars and playing and it branched out from the jazz clubs into the coffee bars. And before you knew it there were thousands of groups everywhere playing skiffle because it was so easy to play on just three chords. Most of the songs were pretty simple. Everybody got a chance to play you got the washboard player at some of them some of the group's use tea-chest bass or tub based on 10,000 years ago. We don't care what my man allowed players could play or how much weight a graded middle of (00:42:30) the skiffle craze lasted only about a year and a half but its influence was far-reaching many of the musicians who would become part of the British Invasion of the 1960s started out playing skiffle John Lennon Paul McCartney and George Harrison, first played together in a skiffle group called The Quarrymen and The Rock Island line clearly had a place in their hearts all three recorded playing it at times when they were just fooling around McCartney gave the tune his familiar polish during a rehearsal in the mid 70s (00:43:07) rock and The Rock and line is mighty good road. If you wanna ride you gotta ride like fun to get your ticket at station on the Rock Island line (00:43:18) and John. Sense of humor is evident in this home recording he made in his New York apartment in the late 70s. Lennon and McCartney are just two of the many artists who have interpreted the song over the years soon after donegan's version became a hit noted train songs singer. Johnny Cash came out with a fine version of his own (00:44:08) Northbound in the southbound track to leave him, but he won't be back Weller. What kind of line she's a mighty controlled Rock Island line. It's road to ride (00:44:23) Stan freberg made fun of the songs obscure lyrics in a bit. He recorded with Peter Leeds Freiburg blades a singer auditioning the song for an impatient producer (00:44:33) not as his story about The Rock Island line that'll Rock Island lines. You run down in New Orleans and just a said a New Orleans, but the big tailgate and all its me just a moment and Todd me. Yeah. Are you going to (00:44:47) sing the song? (00:44:48) Well, read it or what? I'm going to sing it but first I always tell whether of the story behind The Rock Island line sort of sketch in the Middle with a background as it were you are going to sing in just a second I get to it. Well, let's get to it then. Okay, and all the trees are go to the tailgate why they they got to pay the man some money. But of course if you got certain things, I'm bored you okay, you have to pay them enough to be okay, okay with him and step right along. Let's snap it up blues (00:45:15) singers brownie McGhee and (00:45:17) Sonny Terry one stored with Leadbelly recorded a distinctive version of The Rock Island line in the late 60s. All right, (00:45:39) Harry Belafonte tried to give the song a kind of a Vegas feel this recording he made in the (00:45:44) 70s. (00:46:00) Los angeles-based group called The Knitters had some fun with the song in the mid (00:46:04) 80s. I got giraffes. I got elephants rhinoceroses. I got brontosauruses and I got all livestock. I got all livestock (00:46:23) and that brings us back to the inspiration for this story Little Richard's impassioned performance from (00:46:29) 1988. And who knows how many (00:46:51) future Generations will find new inspiration in this old song Bethany yarrow is the daughter of Peter Yarrow from the singing group Peter Paul and Mary she teaches music programs in schools and has found that kids will get excited about folk music when they can relate to it yarrow is currently recording a CD that she calls deep folk. (00:47:10) I'm trying to let people who really has whose ears are really only accustomed to to music today trying to give them away into these songs in a way to hear them. So I started delving back into folk music and trying to kind of make evident the links between the history of American music and music how it is (00:47:35) today yarrow says one of the old songs that she feels is linked to the music of today is The Rock Island line as (00:47:41) to do for me with rhythmic, I'd today a lot of the music especially R&B. And Hip-Hop and that has is all based on the Rhythm and that's what people dance to that's what people move to and for me the rhythm of the train and the rhythm of work and the rhythm of that Rock Island line kind of chugging along with what I'd really tried to tap into well. (00:48:25) While the song lives on the railroad that inspired it is gone around the beginning of the 20th century The Rock Island Railroad was taken over by a group of speculators who attempted to make some money through Rapid expansion the new construction and Acquisitions put the railroad deeply in debt. It went in and out of bankruptcy twice between 1915 and 1948 by the 1950s passenger traffic was already declining as a growing number of people chose to ride in cars or on airplanes in 1971 other railroads were able to transfer their unprofitable passenger lines to Amtrak but railroad historian, Al Zimmer says the Rock Island couldn't afford to do that and federal law required them to continue providing passenger service that they were losing money on the Reel whirs couldn't just say. Hey, I want to get rid of it. You take it. They had a by the way in and The Rock Island could never come up with the money that Amtrak want to take over its past. Trains. So therefore even after Amtrak started in 1971. They kept running the (00:49:30) Rock Island, Chicago Route 1 train and up the morning one back at night and the same with Peoria and those those finished up in about November of 78. They were down basically two cars and to beat up (00:49:43) locomotive The Rock Island tried to work out a merger with the Union Pacific, but the deal was held up by federal Regulators. The railroad finally went under after its clerks went on strike in 1979. The last train ran on March 31st, 1980. Its assets were eventually auctioned off. As for the original Rock Island, it's still property of the US government these days. It is known as Arsenal Island because it is home to one of the largest weapons manufacturing facilities in the world. Eventually, it will not exist at all. The moving Waters of the Mississippi River are eroding it away one Pebble at a time geologists estimate that in about know 20,000 years or so, this Rock Island will be gone. (00:50:28) I may be riding. I may be wrong. No, you're gonna miss me when I'm gone. Oh dear, I gotta Rock Island line, a (00:50:40) mighty good road was written and produced by Jim Beckel with production assistance from Julie siple and Eugene show the broadcast editor was Stephen Smith the online editor Bob Collins. If you'd like more about the Rock Island line or chance to submit your comments visit our (00:50:54) website, Minnesota Public Radio dot-org. The right about here. I got a line. There's a mighty good road. If you want to ride you got the right and I can finally get your ticket at the station on the rock out of line. Jesus died to save us in glory to God we gonna meet him again. She's a mighty good road is the road to write if you want to ride you got to ride it like a party get your ticket at the station on a rock. I may be right and I may be wrong though. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. I got a lunch is a mighty good road is the road to ride if you want to ride you got the right if I can finally get your ticket that station on the Rock. Jesus died to see my glory to God. We're going to meet him again. Road, if you want to ride you got to ride it like if I to get your ticket at the station on the rock out of line, (00:52:06) and that does it for our midday program today? I'm Gary eichten. Thanks so much for joining us will be re broadcasting the Rock Island line at nine o'clock tonight, and of course again, it's on our website as well (00:52:15) and a sort of public radio dot org (00:52:18) Sarah Myers. The producer of our program care of McGuire is our assistant producer. We had helped this week from Clifford Bentley and Genaro Vasquez. Hope you can join us. Monday should be a great program Senate candidate Norm Coleman will be joining us at 11 o'clock. And then over the noon hour all four of the major candidates for Governor will be here to informally discuss their campaigns in the issues. That's Monday on midday Gary eichten here. Thanks for tuning in today programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by Gopher State One Call committed to protecting people and property against underground utility damage and liability Gopher State One Call Call Before You Dig 1-800 to 5 to 11 66. Minnesota Public Radio listeners connect to business technology and the world from home and work. You can connect to NPR listeners and turn them into your customers called 651290 (00:53:10) 1249 now to find out how (00:53:15) You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. We have a partly cloudy Sky 67 degrees at Kenner wfm (00:53:22) 91.1 Minneapolis. And (00:53:23) st. Paul could get hit 70 degrees yet today. Then tonight rain will move in with a low in the upper 40s tomorrow more rain temperatures dropping through the day by Sunday a partly cloudy sky with a high only in the low 40s.