| "Train in Vain" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.png) 1980 New Zealand release | ||||
| Single by the Clash | ||||
| from the album London Calling | ||||
| B-side | "London Calling" | |||
| Released | 12 February 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 1979 | |||
| Studio | Wessex (London) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:09 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Guy Stevens | |||
| The Clash singles chronology | ||||
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| The Clash reissued singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio | ||||
| "Train in Vain" on YouTube | ||||
"Train in Vain" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash. It was released as the third and final single from their third studio album, London Calling (1979). The song was not originally listed on the album's track listing,[6][7] appearing as a hidden track at the end of the album. This was because the track was added to the record at the last minute, when the sleeve was already in production. Some editions include the song in the track listing. It was the first Clash song to reach the United States Top 30 charts[6][7] and in 2010, the song was ranked number 298 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[8][9]
In the US and Canada, the song's title is expanded to "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)", as the words "stand by me" dominate the chorus. It was titled "Train in Vain" in part to avoid confusion with Ben E. King's signature song "Stand by Me".
- ^ Taylor, Tom (12 February 2021). "The Story Behind The Song: The Clash's punk rock classic 'Train in Vain (Stand by Me)'". Far Out. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
- ^ Partridge, Kenneth (13 December 2014). "The Clash's 'London Calling' at 35: Classic Track-by-Track Album Review". Billboard. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
- ^ Nascimento, Débora (October 2009). "The Clash: Clássico do rock politizado chega (atual) aos 30 anos". Continente multicultural (in Portuguese). No. 106. p. 83.
- ^ Egan, Sean (2009). Los discos del cambio (in Spanish). Ediciones Robinbook. p. 251. ISBN 9788496924475.
- ^ "New Wave Music Songs". AllMusic.
- ^ a b Black, Johnny (May 2002). "The Greatest Songs Ever! "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" Article on Blender :: The Ultimate Guide to Music and More". Blender. Archived from the original (ASPX) on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2007.
a, b) Thrown together at the last minute in the dying hours of sessions for the Clash's classic 1980 album, London Calling, 'Train in Vain (Stand by Me)' was not even listed on the record's cover. It was the Clash song that almost wasn't, but it turned out to be the one that brought the band into the Top 30 for the first time.
c) 'Train in Vain', written in one night and recorded the next day, was initially going to be given away as a promotion with the British rock magazine New Musical Express. Only after that failed to happen did the band consider the song for inclusion on the album.
d) As Wessex Studios' manager and house engineer Bill Price points out, 'Train in Vain' was 'the last song we finished after the artwork went to the printer. A couple of Clash Web sites describe it as a hidden track, but it wasn't intended to be hidden. The sleeve was already printed before we tacked the song on the end of the master tape.'
e) The meaning of the song's title is equally obscure. Sometimes it seems as if every little boy who once dreamed of growing up to be a train engineer became a songwriter instead. With the Clash, however, things are never quite what they seem — and no train is mentioned in the song. Mick Jones, who wrote most of it, offers a prosaic explanation: 'The track was like a train rhythm, and there was, once again, that feeling of being lost.'
f) Another curious aspect of "Train in Vain", given the Clash's political stance and reputation for social consciousness, is that it's a love song, with an almost country-and-western lyric that echoes Tammy Wynette's classic weepie "Stand by Your Man".
g) If the Clash were hard-line British punks who despised America as much as their song 'I'm So Bored with the USA' suggested, why did 'Train in Vain' have such a made-in-the-USA feel? Strummer has admitted that despite the band's anti-American posturing, much of its inspiration came from this side of the Atlantic Ocean. 'I was drenched in blues and English R&B as a teenager,' the singer says. 'Then I went to black American R&B with my [pre-Clash] group the 101ers. Mick had heard a lot of that stuff too, and he had this extra dimension of the glam/trash New York Dolls/Stooges scene.'
h, i) 'Train in Vain'... has become a Clash standard, covered by artists as diverse as EMF, Dwight Yoakam, Annie Lennox and Third Eye Blind. Its influence crops up elsewhere, too: Listening to 'Train in Vain' and Garbage's 'Stupid Girl' in succession makes clear where Garbage drummer and producer Butch Vig located 'Stupid Girl''s distinctive drum loops. - ^ a b Janovitz, Bill. "Train in Vain". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
- ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". RollingStone. 9 December 2004. Archived from the original on 25 October 2006. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
292. Train in Vain, The Clash
- ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time - Train in Vain The Clash". Rolling Stone. 9 December 2004. Archived from the original on 28 December 2006. Retrieved 22 November 2007.