Rock Island Line (song) - History

History

• In 1964, "The Penguin Book Of American Folk Songs", compiled and edited, and with notes, by Alan Lomax, was published in Britain; it was subsequently reprinted in 1966 and 1968. On page 128 it includes the song "Rock Island Line" with the following footnote:

  John A. Lomax recorded this song at the Cumins State Prison farm, Gould, Arkansas, in 1934 from its convict composer, Kelly Pace. The Negro singer, Lead Belly, heard it, rearranged it in his own style, and made commercial phonograph recordings of it in the 1940s. One of these recordings was studied and imitated phrase by phrase, by a young English singer of American folk songs, who subsequently recorded it for an English company. The record sold in the hundreds of thousands in the U.S. and England, and this Arkansas Negro convict song, as adapted by Leadbelly, was published as a personal copyright, words and music, by someone whose contact with the Rock Island Line was entirely through the grooves of a phonograph record.

However, analysis of the card catalog at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, where the Lomaxes' recordings reside, reveals that John A. Lomax first recorded the song the previous month, at another prison in Little Rock, Arkansas. (The Little Rock recording is dated September 1934, and the recording from Gould is dated October 1934.) This makes Alan Lomax's theory that Pace was the original composer of the song unlikely.

According to Harry Lewman Music,

• Lonnie Donegan's recording, released as a single in late 1955, signalled the start of the UK "skiffle" craze. This recording featured Donegan, Chris Barber on double bass and washboard player (Beryl Bryden), but as it was part of a Chris Barber's Jazz Band session for Decca Records, Donegan received no royalties from Decca for record sales, beyond his original session fee.

• Pete Seeger recorded a version a cappella while he was chopping wood, to demonstrate its origins.