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Rock Island Line

"Rock Island Line" is an American folk song. Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a folk song as early as 1929. The first recorded performance of "Rock Island Line" was by inmates of the Arkansas Cummins State Farm prison in 1934.[1]

For other uses, see Rock Island Line (disambiguation).

"The Rock Island Line"

1930 (1930)s

October 1934

Cummins State Farm, Lincoln County, Arkansas

American folk music

1:48

Archive of Folk Culture (no. AFS 248)

see text

John A. Lomax

The beginning of the most popular version of the song tells the story of a train operator who smuggles pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock, but this episode was a later addition not present in the traditional, 1929 version. The song's chorus includes:


Many artists subsequently recorded it, often changing the verses and adjusting the lyrics.[2]

Prison inmates in Arkansas – Recorded by John Lomax in Arkansas twice in 1934. The October 1934 recording, by Kelly Pace and a group of convicts, was released on the compilation album A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings (released 1997)

[7]

– Recorded in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 1937, the first of many recordings he made during his career, the last being live at the University of Texas at Austin on June 15, 1949.[8]
"Rock Island Line" appears on the Lead Belly compilation Rock Island Line: Original 1935-1943 Recordings (released 2003),[9] among many others.

Lead Belly

Arkansas prisoners – Also recorded by John Lomax in 1939. This performance is included with his 1939 Southern States Recording Trip.

[10]

"Rock Island Line" on Allmusic

Oldielyrics.com, Lonnie Donegan's version of "Rock Island Line"

A Mighty Good Road: Minnesota Public Radio

American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog