Oil Tanker Train

Album: I Am What I Am (2010)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Merle Haggard was born in 1937 to a mother and father who lived in a converted boxcar in Oildale, California. He recalls here how an oil tanker train, "would rumble and rattle the old boxcar we lived in."
  • Haggard recalled the inspiration for the track to Uncut magazine: "It used to come by every day and rattle the ground. We were in earthquake country, so when the ground starts moving, you look up. When that old oil train would go by - it done that every morning, it done that every evening - it grabbed your attention. That was doing it with steam engines back then. You got the old 'choo choo' going by and you got the whistle. It added the background to life that don't exist anymore."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Glen Burtnik

Glen BurtnikSongwriter Interviews

On Glen's résumé: hit songwriter, Facebook dominator, and member of Styx.

Grateful Dead Characters

Grateful Dead CharactersMusic Quiz

Many unusual folks appear in Grateful Dead songs. Can you identify them?

George Clinton

George ClintonSongwriter Interviews

When you free your mind, your ass may follow, but you have to make sure someone else doesn't program it while it's wide open.

Motley Crue

Motley CrueFact or Fiction

Was Dr. Feelgood a dentist? Did the "Crüecifixion" really happen?

Dean Friedman - "Ariel"

Dean Friedman - "Ariel"They're Playing My Song

Dean's saga began with "Ariel," a song about falling in love with a Jewish girl from New Jersey.

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty

Rob Thomas of Matchbox TwentySongwriter Interviews

Rob Thomas on his Social Distance Sessions, co-starring with a camel, and his friendship with Carlos Santana.