Down Bound Train

"Down Bound Train"
Single by Chuck Berry
from the album After School Session
A-side "No Money Down"
Released January 1956[1]
Recorded December 1955[2]
Genre Rock and roll
Label Chess
Songwriter(s) Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry singles chronology
"Thirty Days"
(1955)		 "Down Bound Train"
(1956)		 "Roll Over Beethoven"
(1956)

"Thirty Days"
(1955)		 "No Money Down"
(1955)		 "Roll Over Beethoven"
(1956)

The song Down Bound Train was inspired by Chuck Berry's fire and brimstone religious upbringing.[3] both his parents were staunch Baptists, and sang in the Antioch Church Choir, which rehearsed at his home.

It is a song about redemption and a warning against alcohol abuse. A man who has too much to drink falls asleep on a bar room floor and has a vivid dream about riding a train, which is driven by the Devil himself. When the man wakes up he renounces the demon drink.

"Down Bound Train" was released in December 1955 as the B Side of "No Money Down". The title is sometimes given as "The Down Bound Train" or "Downbound Train."

It's one of the first rock records to employ fade-in and fade-out. Negativland performed and recorded "Hellbound Plane" in concert; it is a parody of "Downbound Train" and suggested fictional character Dick Vaughn had died in a plane crash.

References

  1. ↑ "45cat - Chuck Berry - No Money Down / The Downbound Train - Chess - USA - 1615". 45cat. Retrieved 2017-05-27.
  2. ↑ Rudolph, Dietmar. "A Collector's Guide to the Music of Chuck Berry: The Chess Era (1955–1966)". Retrieved 2009-09-03.
  3. ↑ SongFacts article about Chuck Berry's song
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