Sister Rosetta Tharpe - "This Train (Is Bound For Glory)" information, video, & lyrics

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision - Oct. 2, 2022

This pancocojams post presents information about the Spiritual or Early Black Gospel song "This Train (Is Bound For Glory)".

This post also provides information about Sister Rosetta Tharpe and showcases a video of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and band performing the Gospel song "This Train (Is Bound For Glory).

The content of this post is presented for cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Sister Rosetta Tharpe for her musical legacy and thanks to all the musicians that are featured in this video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "THIS TRAIN (IS BOUND FOR GLORY)

Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Train
" "This Train", also known as "This Train Is Bound for Glory", is a traditional American gospel song first recorded in 1922. Although its origins are unknown, the song was relatively popular during the 1920s as a religious tune, and it became a gospel hit in the late 1930s for singer-guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[1] After switching from acoustic to electric guitar, Tharpe released a more secular version of the song in the early 1950s.

The song's popularity was also due in part to the influence of folklorists John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, who discovered the song while making field recordings in the American South in the early 1930s and included it in folk song anthologies that were published in 1934 and 1960. These anthologies brought the song to the attention of an even broader audience during the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.[2] Another song, called "The Crawdad Song", uses the same melody.

Early history

The earliest known example of "This Train" is a recording by Florida Normal and Industrial Institute Quartette from 1922, under the title "Dis Train".[3] Another one of the earliest recordings of the song is the version made by Wood's Blind Jubilee Singers in August 1925 under the title "This Train Is Bound for Glory". Between 1926 and 1931, three other black religious groups recorded it. During a visit to the Parchman Farm state penitentiary in Mississippi in 1933, Smithsonian Institution musicologist John A. Lomax and his son Alan made a field recording of the song by black inmate Walter McDonald. The next year the song found its way into print for the first time in the Lomaxes' American Folk Songs and Ballads anthology and was subsequently included in Alan Lomax's 1960 anthology Folk Songs of North America.[2]

In 1935, the first hillbilly recording of the song was released by Tennessee Ramblers as "Dis Train" in reference to the song's black roots.[2] Then in the late 1930s, after becoming the first black artist to sign with a major label, gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe recorded "This Train" as a hit for Decca. Her later version of the song, released by Decca in the early 1950s, featured Tharpe on electric guitar.

In 1955, the song, with altered lyrics, became a popular single for blues singer-harmonica player Little Walter Jacobs as "My Babe". This secular adaptation has since become a rock standard recorded by many artists, including Dale Hawkins, Bo Diddley, Cliff Richard (three times), and the Remains.”…

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Excerpt #2
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=160108
Subject: DTStudy: This Train (is bound for glory)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jun 16 - 05:14 PM
...."here is the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:
This Train

DESCRIPTION: "This train is bound for glory... If you ride it, you must be holy." "This train don't pull no gamblers..." (And so forth, through various sinners the train doesn't pull.) "This train don't pull no extras... Don't pull nothin' but the Heavenly Special."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Industrial Institute Quartet)

....RECORDINGS:
Biddleville Quintette, "This Train is Bound for Blory" (Paramount 12448, 1927)
Big Bill Broonzy, "This Train" (on Broonzy01)
Florida Normal Industrial Institute Quartet, "Dis Train" (OKeh 40010, 1924; rec. 1922)
Garland Jubilee Singers [pseud. for Bryant's Jubilee Quartet] "This Train" (Banner 32267/Oriole 8098/Romeo 5098, all 1931/Perfect 190, 1932; on RoughWays2)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "This Train" (OKeh 04910, 1939)
S. E. Mullis Blue Diamond Quartet, "Dis Train" (Champion 16424, 1932)
Southern Plantation Singers, "This Train is Bound for Glory" (Vocalion 1250, 1929; rec. 1928)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "This Train" (Decca 2558, 1939) (Down Beat 104 [as Sister Katty Marie], n.d.)

NOTES: Cohen observes that there are two basic forms of this song, the "This Train" version in the description and a type he calls "Same Train": "Same train carry my mother, same train (x2). Same train carry my mother, Same train be back tomorrow, same train."

There isn't much different in age, but Cohen argues that "Same Train" is older because it is much less interesting. I would say he is almost certainly right."...

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From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Jun 16 - 03:23 AM
"FWIW because of his Autobiography, people, understandably, assume Woodie Guthrie wrote it. I have seen a statement by him somewhere to the effect he was putting the record straight. He regarded the song as trad."
-snip-

 "trad" = "traditional", meaning an old song whose composer is unknown
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INFORMATION ABOUT SISTER ROSETTA THARP
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6L5grLqkA0
"Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and recording artist. A pioneer of mid-20th-century music, she attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and rhythmic acompaniment that was a precursor of rock and roll. She was the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the godmother of rock and roll".[1][3][4][5][6] She influenced early rock-and-roll musicians, including Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.[5][7][8]

Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her music of "light" in the "darkness" of nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, Tharpe pushed spiritual music into the mainstream and helped pioneer the rise of pop-gospel, beginning with her 1939 hit "This Train".[1] Her unique music left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists, such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds. While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the pop world, she never left gospel music."...
-snip-
This excerpt is reformatted for this post for greater reading clarity.

That folk music forum discussion thread contains additional text (lyric only) examples and additional comments about this religious song."

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Sister Rosetta Tharpe / "This Train (is bound for Glory)" - (live performance)



Enzo Gianvittorio, Published on Jul 11, 2014

This train is a clean train, this train
This train is a clean train, this train
This train is a clean train, everybody's riding in Jesus' name
This train is a clean train, this train.

This train is bound for Glory, this train
This train is bound for Glory, you know this train
This train is bound for Glory,
Everybody riding here got to be holy
'Cause this train is a clean train, This train

But this train, don't pull no lairs, this train
you got to get off. This train, don't pull no lairs,
no false pretenders, and not bad b..
because this train is a clean train
This Train !

But this train, don't pull no wankers
I said this train don't pull no wankers, this train
no no no no no don't pull no wankers,
no crap shooters and no whiskies drinkers...
It's a clean train
This Train !

You know, this train don't pull no jokers, this train
This train don't pull no jokers, ah ah this train
Hey, this train don't pull no jokers,
no tobacco chewers and no cigar smokers
'Cause this train is a clean train, I said this train.

This train is on the way to Glory, this train.
Yeah this train, is on the way to Glory, ohhh this train.
You know this train is on the way to Glory
everybody riding it it got to be holly holly
'Cause this train is a clean train,
This Train !
-snip-
Here are two comments from that video's discussion thread:
Mrs. Cardenas, 2015
"Lovely! Good'ol music, where are u this days!😕😭😭😭 It's a beautify, soulful song"

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jchbsurf, 2015
"Not so well remembered any longer but Ms Tharpe was a monster talent."
-snip-
Describing a person as being "a monster talent" means that that person is (was) exceptionally talented (has/had super human talent). This is a positive description and is the same as saying that the person is "a beast".

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