OK, this may not be a song about trains per se, but the title has the word "train" in it.  And it's by Stan Ridgway, on whom I am very high, as you may well know.  I never got to post a song from Anatomy (1999) when I did a Ridgway week, probably because it has very little if any YouTube presence.  But since "Train of Thought" is on his MySpace page, I'm posting it today.

Stan is just one of those "songwriter" types who can actually lend really good musical arrangements to his songs.  So many "songwriters" end up boring me to death because they don't bother with such matters - they essentially just strum their guitars and expect us to be so overwhelmed by their poetic brilliance that we ignore the fact that there just isn't a whole hell of a lot going on underneath it.  That's not to say that simple "guy-and-guitar" can't work if it's done well.  Jim Croce did it all the time.  But even in his case, he played his guitar so intricately and so flawlessly that it made his storytelling that much more compelling.  I may be speaking just for myself, but no matter how brilliant your spoken words are, backing them up with strummed G-D-C just isn't gonna cut it.  You are MUSICIANS.  Make MUSIC.  If you're gonna sell yourself solely on your ability to put words together, be a poet or a writer.  Knowing how to strum four chords doesn't make you a "songwriter."  Not a very good one at least.

OK, I'm probably just talking out of my nether regions.  But I'm just not a big "words" guy.  I can appreciate a person's ability to write good lyrics and create interesting stories (seeing as how I have none), but if your song is really gonna reach me, it has to make a tangible, visceral musical connection.  And Stan Ridgway is as good at that as anyone.

Hear "Train of Thought" on Stan's MySpace page.  Hopefully this song will stick around, unlike the last time I linked to his MySpace page.

This is part of week-long series on songs about trains.