When Train Songs Briefly Gave Way to Plane Songs

Train songs have played a major role in American culture and they also play a prominent role in the canon of 20th century American music. From “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and “Wabash Cannonball” to “City of New Orleans” and “Folsom Prison Blues,” songs about passenger trains captured a sense of their eras.

But by the 1960s, jet airplanes started to replace trains as the dominant form of commercial travel, and the romance of air travel was starting to capture the nation’s fancy. Popular music embraced this exciting new era of travel – along with the heartbreak of a broken relationship ending with the former lover flying off into distant skies.

Here is a bit of the musical magic from that era…

I still hum this song on those infrequent occasions when I change planes at LAX…

”L.A. International Airport” [Susan Raye]

With silver wings across the sky, vapor trails that wave goodbye
To those below who've got to stay at home
I wish that I had flown at night, so I could take that champagne flight
Rid myself of every tear I own.

Soaring high above the heaven, in a 747
Fighting back the tears that curse my eyes
Captain's voice so loud and clear, amplifies into my ear
Assuring me I'm flying friendly skies.

L.A. International Airport
Where the big jet engines roar
L.A. International Airport
I won't see him anymore

Who better than Merle Haggard to sing a country song about airplanes and broken hearts…

”Silver Wings” [Merle Haggard]

Silver wings
Shining in the sunlight
Roaring engines
Headed somewhere in flight
They're taking you away
And leaving me lonely
Silver wings
Slowly fading out of sight

John Denver really should have recorded a sequel to this song to let us know if he ever came back…

”Leaving on a Jet Plane” [John Denver]

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Airplane songs weren’t all country and folk. Rockers were singing about air travel too.

”Big Old Jet Airliner” [Steve Miller Band]

Oh, oh big ol' jet airliner
Don't carry me too far away
Oh, oh big ol' jet airliner
'Cause it's here that I've got to stay

Let’s finish with Gordon Lightfoot, who somehow found a song at the intersection of the old rail practice of hoboing and the new era’s airplane songs.

”In the Early Morning Rain” [Gordon Lightfoot]

Hear the mighty engines roar
See the silver wing on high
She's away and westward bound
Far above the cloud, she'll fly

This old airport’s got me down
It’s no earthly good to me
And I’m stuck here on the ground
As cold and drunk as I can be

When trains songs died out, so did songs about hoboing. In the words of Mr. Lightfoot:

You can't jump a jet plane
Like you can a freight train
So, I'd best be on the way
In the early morning rain

I guess I’d best be on my way, at least for tonight.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 07:45 PM

| Access Comments