10/26/2021
Train songs are ostensibly about trains, but as we’ve noted before, they’re also about the things trains represent, such as freedom and movement. Hank Snow’s “Crack in the Boxcar Door” is one of those songs, a hobo’s ode to not being tied down to the trappings of settlement. It’s romantic—the hobo life was pretty rugged and precarious as much as it was free.
According to Wikipedia, hoboes, tramps and bums are commonly grouped together, but there are distinctions among the groups. Hoboes travel and are willing to work; tramps travel but avoid work as much as possible; and bums neither travel nor work.
The term, “hobo,” originated in the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century. There are several theories about the word’s origins. It might have come from the term, “hoe-boy” meaning farm hand, or from the railroad greeting “Ho beau,” or even a contraction of “homeless boy.”
It’s unclear exactly when hoboes appeared on the scene. At the close of the Civil War, discharged soldiers hopped freights to travel home, and others followed the freight trains to the American west. The population of hoboes in the U.S. surged during the Great Depression, as men took to the rails in search of work.
A hobo’s life was difficult at best. Not only was he poor and far from home and support, he also faced the hostility of train crews and railroad security agents, called “bulls,” who had a reputation for violence. And riding a freight train is dangerous in itself. Freight cars are neither heated nor cooled (reefers notwithstanding), one could easily become trapped between cars and someone riding in a freight car could easily freeze to death in cold weather.
Nonetheless, there’s a romance in traveling the rails, and Hank Snow’s song is all about romance. We all long for freedom from something. Hank Snow (1914-1999) was a Canadian-American country recording artist who was at the height of his popularity in the 1950s. We wrote about Hank in our June 8 train song, “Canadian Pacific.” He had an expressive baritone voice that could convey a range of emotions, from the joy of freedom to the pain of unrequited love.
Snow grew up in Nova Scotia, in extreme poverty; enduring both psychological and physical abuse and hard, manual labor during the Great Depression. He was nurtured by his musical mother, who gave him support to become a professional musician. Snow settled in Nashville in 1946. He died there of heart failure in 1999.
And, on that cheery note, here he is:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jy1VubN5yIU
Train songs are ostensibly about trains, but as we’ve noted before, they’re also about the things trains represent, such as freedom and movement. Hank Snow’s “Crack in the Boxcar Door” is one of those songs, a hobo’s ode to not being tied down to the trappings of settlement. It’s romantic—the hobo life was pretty rugged and precarious as much as it was free.
According to Wikipedia, hoboes, tramps and bums are commonly grouped together, but there are distinctions among the groups. Hoboes travel and are willing to work; tramps travel but avoid work as much as possible; and bums neither travel nor work.
The term, “hobo,” originated in the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century. There are several theories about the word’s origins. It might have come from the term, “hoe-boy” meaning farm hand, or from the railroad greeting “Ho beau,” or even a contraction of “homeless boy.”
It’s unclear exactly when hoboes appeared on the scene. At the close of the Civil War, discharged soldiers hopped freights to travel home, and others followed the freight trains to the American west. The population of hoboes in the U.S. surged during the Great Depression, as men took to the rails in search of work.
A hobo’s life was difficult at best. Not only was he poor and far from home and support, he also faced the hostility of train crews and railroad security agents, called “bulls,” who had a reputation for violence. And riding a freight train is dangerous in itself. Freight cars are neither heated nor cooled (reefers notwithstanding), one could easily become trapped between cars and someone riding in a freight car could easily freeze to death in cold weather.
Nonetheless, there’s a romance in traveling the rails, and Hank Snow’s song is all about romance. We all long for freedom from something. Hank Snow (1914-1999) was a Canadian-American country recording artist who was at the height of his popularity in the 1950s. We wrote about Hank in our June 8 train song, “Canadian Pacific.” He had an expressive baritone voice that could convey a range of emotions, from the joy of freedom to the pain of unrequited love.
Snow grew up in Nova Scotia, in extreme poverty; enduring both psychological and physical abuse and hard, manual labor during the Great Depression. He was nurtured by his musical mother, who gave him support to become a professional musician. Snow settled in Nashville in 1946. He died there of heart failure in 1999.
And, on that cheery note, here he is:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jy1VubN5yIU
