I've Been Working on the Railroad

"I've Been Working on the Railroad" is an American folk song. The first published version appeared as "Levee Song" in Carmina Princetonia, a book of Princeton University songs published in 1894. The earliest known recording is by the Sandhills Sixteen, released by Victor Records in 1927.

Lyrics

The modern version of the song is:

I've been working on the railroad

All the live-long day.

I've been working on the railroad

Just to pass the time away.

Don't you hear the whistle blowing,

Rise up so early in the morn;

Don't you hear the captain shouting,

"Dinah, blow your horn!"

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow your horn?

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow your horn?

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah

Someone's in the kitchen I know

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah

Strummin' on the old banjo!

Singin' fi, fie, fiddly-i-o

Fi, fie, fiddly-i-o-o-o-o

Fi, fie, fiddly-i-o

Strummin' on the old banjo.

Someone's makin' love to Dinah

Someone's making love I know.

Someone's making love to Dinah

'Cause I can't hear the old banjo

The 1894 version includes a verse very much like the modern song, though in minstrel dialect, but with an intro that is no longer sung:

(SOLO) I once did know a girl named Grace--

(QUARTET) I'm wukkin' on de levee;

(SOLO) She done brung me to dis sad disgrace

(QUARTET) O' wukkin' on de levee.

I been wukkin' on de railroad

All de livelong day,

I been wukkin' on de railroad

Ter pass de time away.

Doan' yuh hyah de whistle blowin'?

Ris up, so uhly in de mawn;

Doan' yuh hyah de cap'n shouin',

"Dinah, blow yo' hawn?"

Sing a song o' the city;

Roll dat cotton bale;

Niggah aint half so happy

As when he's out o' jail

Norfolk foh its oystahshells,

Boston foh its beans,

Chahleston foh its rice an' cawn,

But foh niggahs New Awleens.

The "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" section is actually an older song that has been absorbed by "I've Been Working on the Railroad". It was published as "Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah" in London in the 1830s or '40s, with music credited to J.H. Cave. "Dinah" was a generic name for an enslaved African woman. The melody for this section of the song may have been adapted from "Goodnight, Ladies", written (as "Farewell Ladies") in 1847 by E. P. Christy.

According to the liner notes to Pete Seeger's Children's Concert at Town Hall (1963), the "Dinah won't you blow" section is a more modern addition, contributed to the song by "some college students".

A high school glee club songbook circa 1947 used this introduction:

(Lead): I used to have a dog named "Bill"

(Chorus): A wukkin' on de lebee

(Lead): He run away but I'm here still

(Chorus): A wukkin' on de lebee

(Remainder was modern version)

Other Extant Stanzas

In one version of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" that is printed in "The Family Car Songbook", researched and edited by Tam Mossman, the song continues as follows:

I've been working on the trestle,
Driving spikes that grip.
I've been working on the trestle,
To be sure the ties won't slip.
Can't you hear the engine coming?
Run to the stanchion of the bridge!
Can't you see the big black smokestack
Coming down the ridge?

Chorus

I've been living in the boxcars.
I'm a hobo now.
I've been living in the boxcars,
Which the yard bulls won't allow.
Brother, can you spare a quarter?
Buy me something good to eat?
Brother, can you spare a nickel,
Till I'm on my feet?

Chorus

I'll be owner of this railroad
One of these here days.
I'll be owner of this railroad,
And I swear, your pay I'll raise.
I'll invite you to my mansion,
Feed you on goose and terrapin.
I'll invite you to the racetrack
When my ship comes in.

Chorus

In popular culture

• The melody's start is nearly an exact match to the start of the cello solo (about one minute in) of Franz von Suppé's "Poet And Peasant" overture, composed in 1846 and well-known in the United States.
• There is a striking similarity between the opening line of this song and the first few bars of the old Spanish anthem "Cara al Sol".
• "The Eyes of Texas", the alma mater of the University of Texas, is played to the tune of this song.
• Bruce Springsteen's song in "Bishop Danced" includes the line, "There's someone in the kitchen blowin' 'Dinah' on their horn." The song was previously unreleased until 1998, which it was included on Tracks.
• In the Band of Brothers episode "The Breaking Point", the Americans were singing this song after capturing the town of Foy, Belgium, just before a German sniper began firing at them.
• A version of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" as recorded by Johnny Cash appeared on the third disk of the box set of Cash's works called The Legend.
• The Chambers Brothers released a version in 1966 as a single by Direction, catalog number 58-3760. It later appeared as a bonus track on the CD reissue of The Time Has Come.
• In The Simpsons episode Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie in the final flashforward scene during the screening of the Itchy & Scratchy Movie, when Itchy goes to the school of engineers, can be heard short passage of this song.
• In the South Park episode Elementary School Musical, Stan Marsh performs the "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" section of the song
• In the episode Virtuoso of Star Trek Voyager, the Doctor sings the beginning of this song.
• In the movie Kelly's Heroes, a group of Sherman tanks destroy a German occupied railway station, while playing Johnny Cash's version of the song, over loudspeakers attached to the tanks.
• In the Pound Puppies episode Captain and the cats, the evil witch (Katrina Stoneheart) sang it.
• The tune is featured in the game Railroad Tycoon III, although it is wholly instrumental in nature.
• In the Desperate Housewives episode Where Do I Belong, Lynette Scavo is singing it when she plots a revenge against her husband.
• In John Hubley's 1959 Oscar-winning animated short Moonbird two little boys try to set a trap for a bird, in the middle of the night. The younger brother frequently disrupts their efforts, attempting to sing: primarily this song, along with bits of others. Eventually their voices approximate unison--mangling only a few words, at first--until they get bogged down in repetitions of "Dinah, won't you blow," and "Fi, fie, fiddly-i-o."
• In season 2, episode 5 of I Love Lucy, "The Operetta," Lucy falls back on the railroad tune after she fails to demonstrate singing ability in a more conventional voice exercise.
• In The Big Bang Theory, Leonard, Raj (relying on Howard to sing his part), and Penny sing "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" as a work tune while making flower barrettes for Penny's business. Penny wakes Sheldon so he can chime in for his turn, but disoriented from lack of sleep, Sheldon finishes off the round with lyrics to Sixteen Tons.
• In the 1986 movie Tough Guys the main heroes, Harry Doyle and Archie Long, are singing it when running the hijacked train full throttle to the Mexican border.
• In the movie Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the villian Diesel 10 sings a slightly different version called "I've been working on the Railway" ('Railway' being the UK term for 'Railroad') while charging through the Smelter's Yard. After singing the first line, he ends it with an evil laugh and says "Who wants to work a live-long day, anyway?"
• There is a reference to Somebody in the House with Dinah' in Joyce's Ulysses (15.420) and Finnegans Wake (141).

Popular in Japan

This song is a very familiar nursery rhyme in Japan, with the same melody but different title and different lyrics. It is known as "Senro wa tsuzuku yo doko made mo (線路は続くよどこまでも)" in Japan and it means "The railroad continues forever". The Japanese lyrics describe the happiness of the journey.

NHK introduced this version of the song in 1967 in a TV program called "Minna no Uta" (Minna no Uta; Everyone's Songs).

This tune is used at the stations on the Hanshin Electric Railway Lines (except Umeda Station and Osaka Namba Station) to announce arriving trains and is similarly used at Okayama Station on the Sanyo Line (for Kamigori and Himeji) and the Ako Line (for Banshu-Ako) of West Japan Railway Company.

External links

• Discussion of "Someone in the Kitchen with Diana" [sic] at Mudcat Cafe
• „I've Been Working on the Railroad“ Song on YouTube