Rock Island Line

Album

Single

Label

London Recordings

Genre

Skiffle

Composer(s)

TraditionL

Entered Chart

Mar 24, 1956

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

London1650

Original Artist

Cummins State Farm inmates

One of the most successful pop artists of the pre-Beatle era in the UK, Anthony Donegan (renamed after his hero Lonnie Johnson) has been cited by a range of artists including Van Morrison, George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, Paul McCartney, Bill Wyman, John Lennon and Brian May. Donegan was known as 'The King of Skiffle,' which was a kind of jazz/folk/country/blues fusion usually using homemade or improvised instruments. This was the first of 17 Top 10 hits for him in the UK and the first of two Top 10s in the US - the first British male to achieve that feat. Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) originally recorded this track in 1936. The story goes that whilst Donegan was recording a jazz album with Chris Barber Jazz Band, the band went out for coffee leaving the tape running. Donegan took up the microphone and sung this song to the accompaniment of a passing girl playing the washboard. When the musicians returned they recognised a hit. However, the record company wasn't so enthusiastic. Donegan recalled: "Decca weren't at all keen. They thought folk music meant Cornish pasties and maypoles, with fa-la-la and a tooralay!" The band played safe and took a flat session fee (Donegan pocketed £50 ) rather than a royalty on every copy sold. When Eamonn Andrews played the song on his Pied Piper radio show, interest snowballed, leaving Donegan to regret the decision. The King of Skiffle moaned throughout his career about his lack of financial reward for cutting the song, declining to mention that he re-recorded it a couple of years later under his own name. The song launched the Skiffle music craze. The home made music inspired many Britons to take up the guitar, including a young John Lennon. (His first band, The Quarrymen, was a Skiffle group).

Now this here's the story about the Rock Island Line
The Rock Island Line she runs down into New Orleasn
And just outside of New Orleans is a big toll gate
And all the trains that go through the toll gate
They gotta pay the man some money
But of course, if you got certain things on board
You're okay and you don't have to pay the man nothin
And just now we see a change comin down the line
When you come up to the toll gate
The driver, he shout down to the man
I got pigs, I got horses, I got cows
I got sheep, I got all livestock, I got all livestock
I got all livestock
The man say, you alright boy just
Get on through, you don't have to pay me nothin
And then the train go through
And when he go through the tollgate
The train gotta have a little bit of steam
And a little bit of speed
And when the driver think he safely on the other side
He shouts back down the line to the man
I fooled you, I fooled you
I got pig iron, I got pig iron
I got all pig iron,
Now I'll tell you where I'm goin boy

[Chorus:]
Down the rock island line is a might good road
Oh the rock island line is the road to ride
The rock island line is a mighty good road

Well if you want to ride you gotta ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station of the rock island line
Well I may be right, I may be wrong
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

[Chorus]
Hey you are safe within
The good Lord's comin to see me again

[Chorus]

ABC WXYZ
The cats on the cover but he don't see me

[Chorus]