Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:18
Musician
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: November 22, 1961
Technical Team
Producers: John Hammond
Sound Engineers: George Knuerr and Pete Dauria
“Freight Train Blues” is one of the most famous compositions by John Laird, a harmonica player from Kentucky who wrote about five hundred songs. In an interview in 1973, Laird says that he wrote this song specifically for the singer and host Red Foley, in memory of the sound of the train that had punctuated his youth in the southern United States (also known as Dixie): “I was born in Dixie in a boomer shed just a little shanty by the railway track / freight train was it taught me how to cry / the holler of the driver was my lullaby.” The song was often covered by, among others, Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, Anita Carter, the Weavers, and Bob Dylan.
Recorded on November 22, “Freight Train Blues” is the last song Bob Dylan completed for his first album (the last song of the recording session; “House Carpenter,” was dropped from the album). It is also the last song in which he plays harmonica tuned in C, while accompanying himself on his Gibson J-50. While he faultlessly provides the rhythmic tempo, he is not as comfortable on the arpeggiated part (plectrum) between 1:14 and 1:28. Similarly, his vocal performance, although marked with some ironies, barely follows the tempo on the upper parts. Bob is on the verge of derailing. Strange for a song called “Freight Train Blues”! The song was recorded in one take.