Friday, 18 February 2011

High Ball (O. Winston Link)


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O. Winston Link, Birmingham Special, Rural Retreat, VA

Birmingham Special Gets the High Ball at Rural Retreat, Virginia: photo by O. Winston Link, 1957




There were two trains
Two trains running
One left at midnight
One at break of day
One with a red light
One with no light at all




O. Winston Link, The Pelican at Rural Retreat, VA

 The Pelican at Rural Retreat, Virginia: photo by O. Winston Link, 1957
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12 comments:

  1. manik sharma18 February 2011 at 08:25

    tom,
    this reminds me of scenes from the schindler's list,a somewhat accurate presentation of the holocaust years ever on film..i feel..brilliant photographs...there is something about dark photographs...enigma

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  2. TC18 February 2011 at 08:37

    Manik,

    Yes, that is probably a fair comparison for the ominous atmosphere created in these carefully staged images of Night and Shadow.

    The rail lore that runs deep in early-to-mid-20th c. American Culture echoes also in the text, a conflation of the lyrics of Muddy Waters with those of certain his well-known pupils.

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  3. Tom King18 February 2011 at 13:47

    I like the Carter Family lyrics to Wabash Cannonball, the one verse that goes: "I have rode those highball trains from coast to coast, that's all, but I have found no equal to the Wabash Cannonball."

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  4. Anonymous18 February 2011 at 18:31

    O. Winston Link is unbelievable. Two Trains Running is perfect also -- runic in this form but permitting variations, which rewards the vague, the memory-challenged and talented people with unique diction.

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  5. *18 February 2011 at 23:05

    A spare, beautiful poem, paired well with the pictures.

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  6. TC19 February 2011 at 04:33

    Many thanks, friends.

    Runic indeed.

    This one has been lingering in the mind a while... after some (many) years dreaming of trains and hearing train whistles in the night...

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  7. Issa's Untidy Hut20 February 2011 at 04:29

    Tom,

    Even earlier, one of Muddy's seminal influences, Robert Johnson, with perhaps his most transcendent lyric:

    When the train, it left the station
    with two lights on behind
    When the train, it left the station
    with two lights on behind
    Well, the blue light was my blues
    and the red light was my mind
    All my love's in vain

    Don

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  8. TC20 February 2011 at 07:21

    Don,

    Absolutely.

    Jagger & Richards were smart enough to take only from the finest sources.

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  9. TC20 February 2011 at 07:43

    Don,

    I see that the June 20, 1937 Dallas recording of Love in Vain can be found easily enough.

    This very interesting video for the song uses archival photos, some of which have been seen on this blog (that man at the drinking fountain will forever haunt me, as in fact does this song).

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  10. Issa's Untidy Hut20 February 2011 at 07:53

    Fine use of photos for a youtube video - quite good, and great to hear that wonderful rendition again.

    Thanks for linking it along ... it will be forever haunting for those who remember.

    If I remember correctly, the Stones didn't originally credit him when they covered it ...

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  11. Unknown31 August 2012 at 15:55

    Tom,
    That's my grandfather J. L. Akers in the photos. The second one entitled "The Pelican at Rural Retreat, VA" I was somewhere behind the camera at the time, listening to Kathryn Dodson play chimes. We are trying to save that depot now: www.ruralretreatdepot.org
    Very best,
    Frank Akers

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  12. TC1 September 2012 at 03:43

    Frank,

    That's a beautiful piece of personal history, intersecting with something even larger -- a collective past, in which we all heard those train whistles in the night.

    Let's hope the drive to save the station gets a bit of a push from somewhere. A long way still to go. And from the looks of things, the old place doesn't have many stand-up years left in it. (I'm all too familiar with that condition.)

    The detail about Kathryn Dobson's heavenly chimes brings this story to life in a lovely way. Thanks very much for sharing it.

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