Peggy Seeger – Freight Train [Elizabeth Cotten]
Les notices des versions de Freight Train par Mike Seeger et par Elizabeth Cotten elle-même permettent de comprendre la place de cette chanson dans la vie de Peggy Seeger. Inutile d’en dire plus ici.
FREIGHT TRAIN
Freight train, freight train, goin’ so fast
Freight train, freight train, goin’ so fast
Please don’t tell what train I’m on
So they won’t know what route I have gone
When I die, just bury me deep
Down at the end old Chestnut Street
So I can hear old Number Nine
As she goes roaring on by
When I die, just bury me deep
Down at the end old Chestnut Street
Place a stone at my head and feet
And tell them all I’m goin’ to sleep
Freight train, freight train, goin’ so fast
Freight train, freight train, goin’ so fast
Please don’t tell the train I’m on
So they won’t know what route I have gone
Je connaissais la version de Peter, Paul & Mary, qui n’est pas mal non plus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=968I3O6XdS4
C’est bon, en effet… Je ne sais pas trop où ils sont allés chercher certaines des paroles (peut-être dans des versions publiques d’Elizabeth Cotten). Un truc marrant est le lieu de l’enterrement envisagé (soit-disant pour entendre passer le train N°9) : ce n’est plus Chestnut Street, mais… Bleeker Street, soit en plein Greenwich Village…
FREIGHT TRAIN
Chorus:
Freight train freight train goin’ so fast
Freight train freight train goin’ so fast
Please don’t tell what train I’m on
So they won’t know where I’ve gone.
Freight train, freight train, comin’ round the bend
Freight train, freight train, gone again
One of these days turn that train around
Go back to my hometown.
(Chorus)
One more place I’d like to be
One more place I’d love to see
To watch those old Blue Ridge Mountains climb
As I ride ol’ Number Nine.
(Chorus)
When I die please bury me deep
Down at the end of Bleecker Street
So I can hear ol’ Number Nine
As she goes rollin’ by.
(Chorus)