Written by Paul D. Race for Family Garden Trains™

Casey Jones, a Classic Train Song from Family Garden Trains™

"The Ballad of Casey Jones" was written about a real locomotive engineer, John Luther "Casey" Jones. He was already well known among Mississippi railroaders for various exploits before he died in the famous train crash of April 30, 1900.

The Wreck - Jones' final run occurred when he took over for a sick coworker, driving the llinois Central's "New Orleans Special" passenger train from Memphis toward Canton. Though Jones and his fireman Sim Webb left Memphis 95 minutes late, he was only five minutes behind as he approached Vaughan, Mississippi. Near Vaughan, Jones expected to pass a local train that was supposed to be on a siding, since the "New Orleans Special" had the right-of-way. But unknown to Jones that night, there were two trains on the siding, and their combined length was too long for the siding. Four freight cars and a caboose were right in Jones' path as he steamed around a curve.

The amazing thing is not that Casey died, or even that he died trying to stop the train, but that he slowed it down so much that none of his passengers were seriously injured, a remarkable feat of skill. Remember, this was before steel-framed coaches. Many train crashes in similar situations had resulted in the wooden coaches driving into each other like a collapsing telescope, killing nearly every one on the train and badly injuring the rest.

Fortunately for the passengers Casey, was able to slow the train dramatically before it struck. In addition, the frames of the caboose and the first two freight cars (loaded with hay and corn respectively) were somewhat forgiving, further easing the effect of the impact. Unfortunately for Casey, the next car was loaded with lumber and far less forgiving. And when one of the largest locomotives of its age jumps the track, even at an estimated 35 mph, you don't walk away.

The Locomotive - Casey's favorite locomotive on the Illinois Central was a Consolidation (2-8-0), number 638. But the night he died, he was driving a coworker's favorite Ten-Wheeler (4-6-0), number 382. This is worth noting because the first printed version of the song calls Casey's locomotive a "six-eight wheeler." This phrase makes no sense to railroaders. It may have been a bowdlerized version of six-thirty-eight, Casey's favorite locomotive. But if you want the song to make sense to railroaders, you could sing "a big ten-wheeler." A few folks actually sing it that way. Well, maybe two.

The Song - Wallace Saunders, a friend of Casey's who worked in the roundhouse, soon made up a song about the incident. Casey was not the first nor the last locomotive engineer to go to "glory" pulling on the brakes, but Saunders' song put him on the path to another kind of glory.

Saunders' song got around and was apparently sung in several vaudeville shows. Eventually the vaudeville team of T. Lawrence Seibert and Eddie Newton published their version, which they billed as a comedy song. They "juiced up" the comedy aspect by adding a verse about Casey's widow telling her children not to mind Casey's death, because they have "another papa on the Salt Lake Line." Mrs. Jones refuted that rumor to her death, and most children's albums leave that verse off, but there you have it.

The popularity of "The Ballad of Casey Jones" is an anomaly among railroad songs - it didn't start out by becoming spreading through the working and disadvantaged classes, then gradually creeping into public attention with the rise of Folk, Country, or (in England) Skiffle music, say, sung by "Boxcar Willie," or the "Singing Brakeman," or Hudie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter. Rather it stormed the country's music halls, and was often as not performed by early 20th-century pop stars with an orchestra or an early jazz ensemble playing in the background. The old wax cylinder recording by Billy Murray below shows a typical music hall treatment of the song.

The most often performed versions today resemble Seibert and Newton's version, although several folk singers, perhaps following a folk tradition observed by poet Carl Sandburg, tell the story to a modified tune with several verses "borrowed" from other, lesser-known railroad songs. Tom Rush's version below is an example of that tradition.

On the other hand, the song has certain suffered from overexposure - it's been bowdlerized, satirized, rewritten and (some would say) butchered more than all other railroad songs put together.

On many of these pages, I provide a link to an Amazon search page that you can use to find other performances of the song, but in this case, it doesn't work out very well. Turns out that the song's popularity has caused a host of non-family-friendly offshoots, including a rock act with explicit lyrics as well as several rewrites of the song that involve drug smuggling, "scabbing" and other, er, non-railroading topics. In other words, a link to Amazon's Mp3 search page would not be family friendly. So on this page, I've tried to add the best or at least the most interesting versions I could find.

I was also able to find a copy of Seibert and Newton's sheet music, so if you want to download it click on the following links: page 1, page 2, and page 3.

If you have a favorite version, or a favorite performer that I've left out, please contact me and I'll try to track them down. Also, if you don't see the link for a particular song, hit refresh - it seems like Amazon can never populate all of the links at the same time.

Come all you rounders if you want to hear
The story of a brave engineer.
Casey Jones was the rounder's name.
On the "six-eight" wheeler, boys, he won his fame.
The caller called Casey at half past four.
He kissed his wife at the station door.
He mounted to the cabin with the orders in his hand,
And he took his farewell trip to that promis'd land.

Chorus:
Casey Jones--mounted to his cabin,
Casey Jones--with his orders in his hand,
Casey Jones--mounted to his cabin,
And he took his farewell trip to that promis'd land.

He looked at his water and his water was low.
He looked at his watch and his watch was slow.
He turned to his fireman and this is what he said,
"Boy, we're going to reach Frisco, but we'll all be dead."
He turned to the fireman, said "Shovel on your coal,
Stick your head out the window, see the drivers roll.
I'm gonna drive her 'til she leaves the rail,
For I'm eight hours late by that Western Mail."

Chorus:
Casey Jones--I'm gonna drive her,
Casey Jones--til she leaves the rail,
Casey Jones--I'm gonna drive her,
For I'm eight hours late by that Western Mail.

When he pulled up that Reno hill
He whistled for the crossing with an awful shrill
The switchman knew by the engine's moan
That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones
When he was within six miles of the place
There No. 4 stared him straight in the face
He turned to his fireman, said "Jim, you'd better jump
For there's two locomotives that are going to bump."

Chorus:
Casey Jones--two locomotives
Casey Jones--going to bump
Casey Jones--two locomotives
For there's two locomotives that are going to bump.

MP3 clips from Amazon

Casey Jones - Johnny Cash From the 1994 album, Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Banjo and acoustic guitar provide most of the accompaniment.
Casey Jones - Tom Russell A peppy, but generally traditional arrangement with some fun flatpicking and a skiffle feel.
Casey Jones - Sidney Bechet A traditional jazz (ragtime) instrumental arrangement by one of the best early bandleaders.
Casey Jones - Spike Jones A 40's small-ensemble swing arrangement in which Casey is a WWII bombardier, not a locomotive engineer.
Casey Jones - Pete Seeger In this very early solo recording, Pete sings the song "straight" - later he rewrote the lyrics as a union song called "Casey Jones, the Union Scab." That version isn't here because it's not really about trains.
Casey Jones - Tom Rush This verion has a nice up-tempo folksy sound. It includes verses borrowed from other train songs.
Casey Jones - Mississippi John Hurt If you're a fan of traditional finger-picked guitar blues, take a listen to this guitar part. Yes, there's fret buzz, but there's also a raw energy that is seldom equaled.
Casey Jones - Craig Duncan A very nice, traditional instrumental arrangement with fiddle and flat-picked guitar solos.
Casey Jones - The Balfa Brothers Authentic Cajun sounds and Cajun French lyrics. No Zydeco here . . . .
Casey Jones - The Jubilaires Southern Gospel meets the Mills Brothers in this finger-snapping arrangement.
Casey Jones - Billy Murray A rare 1912 wax cylinder recording. This represents the way the song sounded back when it became a huge hit, long before the days of flat records.
Casey Jones - John D. and Lee Mounce An authentic 22-second harmonica solo "captured" in the Ozarks. I think that 99% of the recording is in the clip, so Amazon may have given you a freebie on this one.

You-Tube Videos of This Song

Several otherwise great videos of this song have so many other instruments in them that you can't really hear the fiddle melody. The Johnny Cash video has a medley that includes "Orange Blossom Special". The Jubilaire's version follows. And after that, there's music from another Johnny Cash performance, combining "Casey Jones" and the "Wreck of the Old 97" with spliced-in footage of folks acting out the actions in the lyrics. For a moment, I thought the locomotive in the Casey Jones segment was a ten-wheeler, but it's a light Pacific (4-6-2). Picky, I know.

I was surprised not to find more usable videos (though I found hundreds of the "other kind"), but I suppose the song had gone so far out of vogue by the time it became common to sing on camera, the only folks still singing this song on camera were folks who especially respected the old-timey songs (like Johnny Cash).

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