Train Kept A-Rollin'

Album: Get Your Wings (1974)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a cover of a song popularized by The Yardbirds in the mid-1960s when Jimmy Page was their primary guitarist. The song started out as a Big Band tune originally recorded by Tiny Bradshaw's Big Band in 1951.

    Aerosmith, who were known as Chain Reaction at the time, were huge fans of The Yardbirds and landed a gig opening for them at a 1966 show in Connecticut. The Yardbirds played "Train Kept A-Rollin'" at that show, and Steven Tyler watched from the edge of the stage. He said they "knocked by tits off."

    Aerosmith played the song at most of their early gigs, often as the closing number. Another live favorite of the band was another Yardbirds song: "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago."
  • A concert favorite for Aerosmith, when they decided to record the song, they initially wanted to do a live version in front of an audience. Instead, their producer Jack Douglas simulated the live sound in the studio, which made for much better sound quality. He had them record the song in the studio (the Record Plant in New York City) and then blasted that recording through huge speakers in a stairwell, recording it with microphones placed on different floors to get a believable delay. He added this to the mix along with crowd noise he had from George Harrison's Concert for Bangla Desh at Madison Square Garden, which he worked on.
  • This can also be found on Aersomith's album Live Bootleg as a medley with "Strangers in the Night" from a 1978 performance in Detroit.
  • Bob Ezrin, who was the executive producer on Get Your Wings, brought in session guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter to perform the dueling solos on this song. Ezrin used Wagner and Hunter on some tracks with Alice Cooper, including Billion Dollar Babies.

    In our 2013 interview with Dick Wagner, he said that none of the band were present when he came in to record, and he's not sure why Aerosmith's own guitarists didn't take care of business. "I don't understand why those guys weren't there," he said. "I still don't really know. I've never talked that much to any of them about it. I just did my job, I was a session guitar player."

    Regarding the guitar parts themselves, Wagner said: "Steve Hunter played the solos at the front and did it fantastic. Then I played that whole section on the end, which is supposed to sound like a live recording, but which really was in the studio. I tried to make it as live and as wild as I could, and it seemed to work out pretty well."
  • At some of their shows, Aerosmith plays a slow version of this song known as "Slow Train." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France
  • Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin jammed on this together when lead singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry inducted Led Zeppelin into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. They also played "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Bring It On Home." Jimmy Page is the guitarist for Led Zeppelin.

Comments: 22

  • Randy C. from Yonkers, NyAs with other songs, the band's guitarist weren't always up to speed to do their own solos. Whether it be drugs or lack of creative ability, hired guns were sometimes necessary to make the music more appealing to the masses, so to speak. Listen to the band live and it becomes apparent who did and didn't write the riffs. That said, I still love them.
  • Paul from New York, NyThe song was originally done by Tiny Bradshaw. BUT the version that both Foghat and Aerosmith are covering is the definitive version done by the Johnny Burnette Trio, one of the first (and many say best) Rockabilly bands- in 1956. Session guitarist Grady Martin was the first to distort the guitar, some say it may be the first Rock and Roll record to use distortion. The reason Foghat's version of Honey Hush sounds like Train is because The Rock and Roll Trio also did Honey Hush on their album. I suggest those who never heard either version, do a google search on this much underrated and influential Rockabilly Band. The Rock and Roll trios version of both songs is THE definitive version of both songs, way ahead of it's time for 1956
  • Craig Lee from Valdosta, GaPeter Griffin from Quahog, Rhode Island...That's funny. And you are correct about Led Zeppelin's first "jam" together. 'Hammer of the Gods' confirms this fact.
  • Ernesto from Mexicali, MexicoFor Stefanie. The song Baby, Please Don't Go was recorded in 1935 by Joe Williams' Washboard Blues Singers and you can find it in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol.4 (Revenant 2000)
    Ernesto, Mexicali, Mexico
  • Melissa from Lorton, VaI love these guys. This is an awesome song. My friends know that I'm truly obsessed with them and made a song about it. B/C I accidently revealed I had the hots fro rock stars. SO The song parodies 'Stacies Mom'. It goes a little like this... Liv's dad has got it goin' on, Liv's dad has got it goin' on. He's all Melissa wants and she's waited for so long. Matthew can't you see, your just not the guy for her. She knows it might be wrong, but Melissa's in love Steven Tyler!! I love it! Just for the record Matthew is a guy who had a crush on me. And you know who Liv is.
  • Peter Griffin from Quahog, RiThis was actually Led Zeppelin's first song together.
  • Frank from Brampton, Ontario, CanadaThis tune certainly kicks butt!! Aerosmith is a classic band who know how to write really good tunes.
  • Lester from New York City, NyFoghat did a song 'Honey Hush' that sounded VERY MUCH like this song.
  • Ted from Winter Park, Flwhile we're on the subject. The entire live @#$& like a suicide ep by guns in roses was recorded in a studio with overdubbed crowd noise
  • Gordon from Lake Havasu City, AzThe Aerosmith version IS
    alot better.
  • Malicious Matt from Squatney, IrelandThis aint no Yardbirds tune, although many consider that the definitive version. It was originally written and performed by Tiny Bradshaw's Big Band in the 1950's. Its pretty much a standard, covered in just about every decade by everybody and their grandfather. Great song!
  • Mike from Winnipeg, CanadaThe Yardbird's version was alot better.
  • Gordon from Lake Havasu City, AzAlthough it's not an original, nobody does this song like Aerosmith. It's so incredible. When I saw them live from the third row, this was one of the last songs they played and the highlight of the show.
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScNo Johnny. There's an old blues song called "Baby Please Don't Go" that has been performed by blues artists lie John Lee Hooker and by rock artists too such as Them. Them is a group that Van Morrison was in. I know that song was recorded in 1935, but who recorded it? I can't remember.
  • Warrinder from A Town, CanadaThis isn't a Yardbirds cover, it's a Tiny Bradshaw cover. The Yardbirds covered it in 1965, while Jeff Beck was their lead guitarist. Jimmy Page replaced Paul Samwell-Smith on bass the year after.
  • Susan from Waveland, MsThey always perfom this live. Seen them 20 times now :) This is usually an encore & it rocks every single time!!!!!
  • Johnny from Los Angeles, CaBy baby please don't go do you mean D'yer Mak'er, because that was a popular Led Zeppelin song that had the phrase baby please don't go in it.
  • Rob from Vancouver, CanadaIt sounds different on "Toys in the Attic" because
    its not on "TITA"
  • Donni from Somewhere, WaIt's crazy how this song sounds totally different on the Toys in the Attic from the You gotta move dvd.
  • Ben from Nyc, MsThe Second section kicks a**!!!!
  • Ed from Nashville, TnThe song was introduced by r&b bandleader Tiny Bradshaw on the King label and later recorded as rockabilly by Johnny Burnette's Rock and Roll Trio on Coral, which is likely where the Yerdbirds discovered it.
    Ed S, Nashville, TN
  • Brian from Grand Forks, NdAlthough, the song sounds live on the album... It is Not... the band wanted to do a live version for the album Get Your Wings because the song always killed live... But, Producer Jack Douglas talked them out of it... Instead they recorded it in the studio and overdubbed concert sounds taken from George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh... Elton John also threw fake live concert sounds on to his studio recording of Bennie and the Jets...
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