11/20/2018
There is a lot of activity in the “swirling thoughts” section of my brain this morning. Probably caused by the crazy song that rushed to the surface. The second musical Barb ever drug me to was “Oklahoma,” and the SIMH today is “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” Yes, well, I never liked it much in the musical, but it seems to me I heard it an abundance of times. Then, when I looked it up, it is as old as I am. Written for broadway in 1943. (Almost as old as me.) Goes almost back to the days when Surreys were the mode of transportation.
Speaking of transportation and music: I’ve been fascinated over the years when I come across an hymn or gospel song which mentions a form of transport. Isn’t it interesting the number of Christian songs about ships and transport over water: “Ship Ahoy!,” “Throw Out the Lifeline,” “Old Ship of Zion,” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” and on and on. Then, of course, “I won’t Have to Cross Jordan Alone.”—Just a river, but you know what I mean.
And then there are the train songs: “Hand Upon the Throttle, and your Eye Upon the Rail”-(may not be the name), and the famous “Train Song.” Never heard it? It was made famous by my Dad. He heard it somewhere in Illinois, on a record way back in the day when you just couldn’t get modes of music real easily. He listened to it, re-listened and re-listened till he learned it. and when he came home and sang it in church, it soon became a favorite in every church he visited. He sang it regularly till he died, I guess. I have the words and once, in a special music time at our church in New Braunfels, I sang it. The people all loved it and asked me to sing it several times but I declined. Even though the song’s lyrics are doctrinally incorrect, there is an excited hope in them—that must be what people like about it.
Maybe I’ll sing that at the start of next Monday night’s bible class. (That’s at zoom.us/j/2103785748 on Monday evening at 7PM, Central…not that I’m promoting it or anything.)
The Train Song was recorded and you can find it through Google (you can google anything, sheesh!)
So, ships and trains, they’ve been used by gospel and hymn writers a lot for the last 100 years, or so. Songs in general have used all modes of transport: “Walking to Missouri” “Just Walkin’ in the Rain” “Thumbin’ a Ride” —then, “Bicycle Built for Two” and songs about motorcycles, cars, trucks, big rigs, trains—“I’m Movin’ On”, and planes- “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane,” etc., etc.
My Dad was born in 1901. I once said to him, “You know, you’ve seen a lot of inventions in your 86 years, which do you think was the greatest?” He hardly drew breath to say, “The Airplane.” I said, really? more than radio, television, computers? He said, “Man has always wanted to fly. When that got started, then man had a need for all these other things.” He may have been right. Would radio have fizzled like “ragtime” music if man hadn’t understood it went through the air at a high rate of speed? A precursor to TV success was sonar and radar as military defense, would that have happened without the airplane? I don’t know. What about the computer, Daddy believed nobody would have needed the computer if they didn’t need to keep up with all the flying around the world. I don’t know. He may have been right.
Interesting thoughts today, mostly coming from the genesis of Surrey With The Fringe on Top. I think I’ll leave these thoughts with you and get on with something a little bit more important: my breakfast!
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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