I can't seem to leave this theme of trains alone. Here are some of my favourite artists singing songs about trains. I actually hadn't heard the first three songs before (I came upon them serendipitously) but they are fast becoming new/old favourites.
This isn't my favourite April Wine song, by any means, but the video has some excellent visuals so I had to include it.
You know I had to include a Gordon Lightfoot song... Although this one only makes passing mention of the train. The singer is on the train, escaping to the northland from a romance gone wrong. I have already included his other train songs in previous blog posts. Steel Rail Blues in my tribute to The Last Spike, and Canadian Railway Trilogy in my very first blog post. You may find this hard to believe but I actually didn't realize I was so enamoured of trains until I started blogging!
Gordon Lightfoot / Sixteen Miles
I have seen this next group perform this song live and I am a big fan of this indie Canadian duo. Corin Raymond is the singer/songwriter with Sean Cotton providing harmonizing vocals and guitar. I was actually saving this song for a Halloween post because it's kind of spooky and only incidentally about a train, but I couldn't resist including a song from my new fave Canadian band with the likes of old standards like Neil, Gord and Murray!
Not only do I enjoy songs about trains but artwork as well. I have included Monet's paintings of trains on previous posts, here are a couple of different artists who feature a train in their paintings.
I am an admirer of Alex Colville's paintings, but I also like this because it was featured on an album cover by Bruce Cockburn (I will have to do a post on him sometime!)
Here is another one of his with a train theme. Rather romantic, isn't it?
This has always been one of my favourite paintings. It was part of the set of paintings in the art auction board game "Masterpiece" which I used to enjoy playing as a child. That was my introduction to Monet as well. Speaking of Monet, this painting was one of the ones he studied during his first visit to London. It is very impressionistic, isn't it? It must have been very inspiring to him.
Here is what I have found very inspiring.... Fan videos starring Richard Armitage! Here is a lovely one of him as John Thornton in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. The video uses music from the miniseries to show us the final scene in the train station. Every scene in this production is a work of art as is the score by Martin Phipps, but this scene is the most gloriously romantic in film history! It makes me forget the fact that it would have never actually happened at a real train station in England during the Victorian Age. It keeps me from thinking at all! But who wants to think, when you are watching the best kiss ever?!
Veryval / North and South 'When it happened at the train station.....
November 7th 1885 was the date that the last spike was driven into the track of Canada's first transcontinental railway (the Canadian Pacific Railway -- a.k.a. the CPR). Sorry, my post is late by a few days, but I just got the memo!
Actually I missed seeing last week's episode of the Rick Mercer Report. Luckily I subscribe to his Youtube channel and what to my wondering eyes did appear -- but this excellent clip where Rick interviews Parks Canada employees about the Last Spike and rides the rails over some of the most beautiful railway scenery to be found anywhere in the world!
The history of Canada is defined by this transcontinental railroad. There is a good chance that without the persistence of Sir John A. Macdonald (Canada's first Prime Minister) and the partnership of railway engineer Sir Sanford Fleming and CPR general manager Cornelius Van Horne, Canada would not exist in its present form today of 10 provinces and 3 territories linked together from east to west coast by a fragile network of rail (and now highways). In fact, it was mainly in order to bring the province of British Columbia into Confederation that started the mad rush to build the railroad in the first place.
Is it any wonder then that so many talented performers have paid homage to Canada's railways?
Here's a famous song called Canadian Pacific by country music star Hank Snow
And one of my favourite songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Steel Rail Blues
Now you know I can't leave without a picture of Richard Armitage, so here he is as Claude Monet in The Impressionists admiring a train.
screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet
*******UPDATE*******
Just had to share this lovely montage done by a dear friend and fellow admirer of Richard Armitage.
Just look at the way she has blended Richard as Claude Monet in The Impressionists with Monet's own artwork and a quote by fellow Impressionist painter Edouard Manet about his artistic vision.
The quote in English is "I paint what I see, not what pleases others to see".
Monet is more appropriate to this post than I at first realized! His birthdate was November 14, 1840 which means that I just missed his 170th birthday by one day!
If you like trains as I do, don't miss my first post on this blog, "I Think I Can"
Most of my visit to the UK was spent in the north of England as I was visiting my daughter who is finishing her Masters Degree at the University of Leeds. As I was checking out things to see and do in and around Leeds, West Yorkshire I came upon some information about the town of Haworth -- where lo and behold, the Brontë sisters lived and wrote! Apparently it is England's most visited literary shrine. Well, the librarian in me, could not pass that one up! Plus, there was the added attraction of taking a steam locomotive to get there!
From Keighley to Haworth by Steam Train
We took a regular train from Leeds to Skipton and got off at Keighley (which I discovered is pronounced Keef-Lee not Kay-Lee as I thought). Keighley is where we got on the steam train to Haworth. This train runs almost daily in the summer months, but otherwise only on the weekends.
***UPDATE***
(03/04/11)
If you read the comments you might notice that JaneGS has corrected me on the pronounciation of Keighley which I not only got wrong because of the spelling but even misheard from the ticket seller's pronounciation! Jane has a lovely post about this same topic at her blog called Reading, Writing, Working, Playing.
Just to be sure I remember how to pronounce Keighley properly -- "KeiTHley" here is an audio file made for me by RAFrenzy (thanks Frenz!) of Richard Armitage speaking this word.
Here is a Youtube video that was very similar to my trip
and shows the town of Haworth better than my snapshots. The video also has a fairly complete recount of the of the Bronte family history. So please forgive me for not reiterating it here. I will just say that their lives were short, but glorious -- and their fame survives to nourish their much-loved village.
Haworth is such a beautiful village, that I wished I had booked at a B&B for an overnight so I could have had more time to explore the town. We had a drink at a lovely pub after our tour but as usual, had to rush off to catch the bus back to Keighley and the train back to Leeds.
Check out this webpage for 360 degree views of all the rooms. Be careful! If you click too fast you might get dizzy!
A view of the back garden with the statue of the three sisters.
Charlotte's wedding bonnet and veil
Both Charlotte and Ann were governesses (and both wrote about governesses). There were extremely few acceptable options for educated women to support themselves in those days. When Charlotte's aunt Bramwell died in 1842, Charlotte returned home and taught at this little school very near the parsonage.
Charlotte was the only one of her sisters to be married. Although she was cautioned against it, Charlotte seems to have had a very happy (although tragically short) marriage to Arthur Nicholls.
Charlotte's husband Arthur Bell Nicholls
One of Charlotte's dresses
Charlotte's writing desk
Copies of the Brontë sisters' famous literary accomplishments
Here is a list of books written by this talented family of authors, poets and artists. Some of their works can be read online.
Now this book was quite exciting for me to see, as I am more of a fan of Elizabeth Gaskell than any of the Bronte sisters. (Sorry, Traxy@The Squeee!) Elizabeth Gaskell, (author of North and South) became a good friend to Charlotte Brontë, so much so, that Charlotte's father requested that Mrs. Gaskell should write Charlotte's biography after her untimely death shortly after her marriage in 1855.
The biography of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell
Here is one of those things that make you go hmmm....(?)
Charlotte Brontë was born in the village of Thornton. In Elizabeth Gaskell's novel
North and South, her main male character's name is John Thornton. (co-incidence?)
Richard Armitage as John Thornton in North and South (2004)
Like the Little Engine that Could, I THINK I can start a blog!
It seems like a huge venture, when I don't really know what I'm doing, but like any new adventure you just start out with some sort of planned destination, and hope that at some point, you will actually arrive there!
This book is a classic of children's literature and is still as popular today as it was when first published. As I have just learned since researching this blog, there is some controversy over exactly when it was first published as a story and even a mystery as to who is the original author! http://tigger.uic.edu/~plotnick/littleng.htmeng.htm
This reminds me of one of my favourite records I used to listen to as a child, Sparky's Magic Pianoand on the flipside was Sparky's Talking Train. I so enjoyed this little record that I was disappointed when our family moved, my mother made me give it up, so I lent it to my little niece and nephew (thinking naively that someday I might have it back!) Well, long story short...the little charmers destroyed it! --A fact that I never let my poor sister (their mother) forget! Fast forward years later, when I have my own little ones and I receive a Christmas package in the mail from my sister...I open it and discover the very same recording I had been lamenting losing all those years ago, but in cassette form now! It brought tears to my eyes, and was in fact, one of the best Christmas presents of my adult life. Unfortunately, my own children were slightly beyond the age of appreciating it, nevertheless it certainly brought me great pleasure to hear it again.
You can hear it too, if you are a child at heart or if you have a child you want to play it for: http://www.landofmagic.co.uk/audio_books/mp3_books/sparkys_talking_train.mp3
Note: If this link doesn't work, try copying it and pasting it into your browser. Alternatively, it also can be found as a clip on Youtube.
You might ask, what besides a children's record would make you so fond of trains?
Well, train travel has been called romantic, but in my case the train really did help my romantic life!
My husband and I started dating in High School, but then I moved quite far away. We stayed in touch with letters and phone calls, but because part of my family remained in town I had a good reason to travel back for any extended holiday to see him, and as the train was the cheapest mode of travel, that was the way to go!
Even when he moved much closer to me, one of us was always taking the train to see the other, and we got to joking that "our song" was the little musical noise which always preceded the announcement of the coming train. "Wah-WAH-wah-wah-waaaahh! VIA Rail on route to....(and ending in the French) ...entre la gare".
Here's a great video of train clips to the music of "I'm a Train" by Albert Hammond, (a great '70s tune). The video is by MysticVideo.
Railroads played an important role in the history of the world, but nowhere more so than in North America, where it opened up the frontier to immigrants from other lands and changed forever the way of life of the native tribes of the interior plains. Much blood was spilled over control of the land that would provide the pathway for the long tracks that plowed their way across the continent A Mari Usque Ad Mare (From Sea to Sea).
Gordon Lightfoot's song "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" is such a classic it deserves a Blogpost all of its own, but as it is certainly one of my faves, I had to include it here.
This video is courtesy of anippygirl whose Youtube channel includes other train videos as well as great Canadian music. Also, she has Lightfoot's Steel Rail Blues, another fave train song!
There are lots of songs about trains, but I have to mention another one of my all-time faves: "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens. Regardless of anyone's opinion of him now, he still wrote a great hit song with a lovely optimistic sentiment:
Now I've been smiling lately,thinking about the good things to comeAnd I believe it could be,something good has begun
And lest you think my musical tastes stopped developing in the 1970s, here is a more current great band whose name just happens to beTRAIN!
I am sure there have been many artists throughout the last century or so that have painted scenes of trains or railroads, but it just so happens that one of my favourite artists, the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, has painted quite a few train scenes.
These pictures are entitled Top to Bottom: Train in the Snow,the Bridge, and St. Lazare Station, Paris. The last picture is only one of a series of this train station. I have picked, I think, the most vibrant version of the scene. (More about Monet another time, as he is definitely worthy of another post!)
Railroads and trains have been the inspiration for quite a few great movies and books.
One of my faves was a television series in the 1970's that was inspired by the books by Pierre Berton called "The National Dream" and "The Last Spike" Pierre Berton / First Impressions / Toronto Arts Foundation / Sites / eZ Publish - Toronto Arts Foundation
Pierre Berton himself, is one of Canada's iconic personalities and also deserving of his own Blogpage!
Here are some other of my favourite movies with a "train theme":
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) A great western with Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda and a killer soundtrack! This movie gets into the dark side of the American mythology about the West with the Robber Barons of the railroad playing havoc with the good folk of the town, and the mysterious stranger antihero who stands up for the powerless. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/om/title/tt0064116/
Silver Streak (1976)
I saw this movie a very long time ago, so I hope it is still as funny as I remember it. It was the first movie pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor and they went on to make several other comedies together. This movie not only has almost all the action taking place on a train, but it ends with a spectacular train wreck...but don't worry -- it's a happy ending!
Part romantic comedy, part murder mystery, part thriller, it has a lot of witty dialogue and is certainly worth watching if it ever shows up on television. But you don't have to take my word for it, why not read some reviews from IMDb.com? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075223/
Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
One of Dame Christie's most adapted literary works, but my favourite version (so far) was the Sidney Lumet version with Albert Finney. However, as I really prefer David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, I was delighted to learn that a remake of this movie has been done starring none other than my fave Poirot!
According to IMDb.com (Internet Movie Database) ITV has made a new season of the Hercule Poirot series and this one is episode 4. Has anyone seen it yet? Has it even aired yet? I am very excited!
There are only 2 more books/miniseries I am going to mention and they are both by my new favourite author, Elizabeth Gaskell. She is a new discovery of mine....(where HAD she been hiding all these years?) even though she was a contemporary of Charles Dickens! I find her writing much more accessible than his though. Enough said for now, the reason I mention her at all is that she definitely has a train theme running throughout two of her books.
Cranford, a series of short stories written for Dicken's literary magazine was published in book form in 1853. Adapted for television in 2007 and starring the magnificent Dame Judi Dench, this series and perhaps more so it's sequel Return to Cranford, paint a picture of a small British Victorian town before industrialization and the railroad intruded upon it, changing it forever. It is really very humourous, as well as quite touching.
When the matriarchs of Cranford (who are so against having the railway line cut through their little haven) are finally treated to a little jaunt in a passenger car, they decide to alter their opinions of Railway travel for the better. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974077/
And I have saved the best for last, so I hope there are still some readers left! Elizabeth Gaskell's masterpiece (in my opinion) and my most favourite adaptation in mini-series of any period drama that I have ever seen before!...North and South.
You may wonder, what this wonderful BBC production has to do with trains?
Well, let's see...only that it starts and ends on a train! The railway is used as an image to tie together the two disparate parts of England: the gentile, pastoral and cultured south and the energetic, industrial and independent north. It's about the clash of cultures, the rise of the working class, and the coming of age of a young, opinionated and slightly snobbish girl (played by Daniella Denby-Ashe) who learns to love the harsher ways of the north along with a certain cotton mill owner (played by Richard Armitage).
Many bloggers have had a lot to say about this movie, so rather than me repeat it all, here are a couple of links to their great reviews: http://reviewerama.blogspot.com/2009/08/bbcs-north-and-south.html
