"Down Bound Train" | ||||
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Single by Chuck Berry | ||||
from the album After School Session | ||||
A-side | "No Money Down" | |||
Released | January 1956[1] | |||
Recorded | December 1955[2] | |||
Studio | Universal Recording Corp. (Chicago)[3] | |||
Genre | Rock and roll[4] | |||
Label | Chess | |||
Songwriter(s) | Chuck Berry | |||
Chuck Berry singles chronology | ||||
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Down Bound Train is a song written by Chuck Berry. It was inspired by Berry's "fire and brimstone" religious upbringing.[5]
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. When the man wakes up he renounces the 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."[6][7]
It is 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.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)