Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Train in Vain" in English language version.
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.
292. Train in Vain, The Clash
Train In Vain," once a bonus track at the end of the album, became the Clash's first proper US hit, reaching #23 on the Hot 100. That's a pop song, and it's a great one.(Subscription required.)
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.
292. Train in Vain, The Clash
"Train in Vain" isn't listed on the sleeve credits for "London Calling" because it was originally going to be a flexi give-away with NME. Unfortunately, the idea proved too expensive and the track went on the LP instead.
The real story on "Train in Vain" is that originally we needed a song to give to the NME for a flexi disk that NME was going to do. And then it was decided that it didn't work out or decided the flexi disk didn't work out so we had this spare track we had done as a giveaway. So we put it on London Calling but their[sic] wasn't time because the sleeves were already done.
"Train in Vain" isn't listed on the sleeve credits for "London Calling" because it was originally going to be a flexi give-away with NME. Unfortunately, the idea proved too expensive and the track went on the LP instead.
