The Wabash Cannonball: A Song History

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The Wabash Cannonball descends from a song written in praise of a different railroad. In 1882 J. A. Roff published words and music for "The Great Rock Island Route!!", a song-and-chorus for voice and piano celebrating the Rock Island line; its cover carried a lithographed passenger depot and a map of the route, and it was dedicated to the railroad's general ticket and passenger agent.[1][2] Roff's song already held some of the words later sung to the Cannonball, and William Kindt reworked the material under the title "Wabash Cannon Ball," moving the song to the Wabash.[3] Sources differ on the date of Kindt's version: some give 1904, while a Library of Congress essay gives 1903 and describes it as built on several older train songs, Roff's among them.[3][4][5] The train in the song was imaginary, and folk singer Utah Phillips passed along a hobo legend in which it was a ghost train that came for a hobo at death to carry his soul onward.[6]

Color lithograph of two steam passenger trains racing away from a busy railroad junction

Currier & Ives, American Railroad Scene: Lightning Express Trains Leaving the Junction, lithograph, 1874. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

The Carter Family recorded the song in 1929, but their version did not reach the public until the early 1930s; sources differ on whether it appeared in 1932 or 1933.[5][7][8] The record that made it famous came on October 21, 1936, when Roy Acuff and His Crazy Tennesseans recorded it in Chicago for the American Recording Company. The lead vocal on that record was not Acuff's but Sam "Dynamite" Hatcher's; Acuff's part was to imitate a locomotive's steam whistle.[4] After Acuff joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938 the song became so closely tied to him that audiences counted on hearing it from him each week, and he recorded it again with his own vocal in 1947.[4] It became his theme song, and the 1936 recording was added to the National Recording Registry in 2005.[9][4]

The song's fame is reported to have worked backward on the railroads: the Wabash Railroad later named a real Detroit–St. Louis passenger train after it, a service that ended in 1971 when Amtrak took over intercity passenger trains.[10] Today it is most often heard at a lively tempo, though the melody also suits a gentler, slower treatment.[6]

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Sources

  1. Johns Hopkins University, Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection: "The Great Rock Island Route!! Song and Chorus".
  2. UW-Madison Libraries, Mills Music Library Digital Collections: "Great Rock Island Route".
  3. History News Network (James W. Loewen): "Wabash Cannonball".
  4. Library of Congress, National Recording Registry (John W. Rumble): "Wabash Cannon Ball, Roy Acuff and His Crazy Tennesseans (1936)".
  5. Wikipedia: "Wabash Cannonball".
  6. Acoustic Guitar: "Strum and Sing the Legendary American Train Song Wabash Cannonball".
  7. SecondHandSongs: "Wabash Cannonball by The Carter Family".
  8. Wikipedia: "Carter Family discography".
  9. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Roy Acuff".
  10. Wikipedia: "Wabash Cannon Ball (train)".