I've Been Working on the Railroad facts for kids

Quick facts for kids "I've Been Working on the Railroad"
"I've Been Working on the Railroad", published as Levee Song in the Princeton University compilation Carmina Princetonia, 1898
Song
Published	1894
Songwriter(s)	Anonymous

"I've Been Working on the Railroad" is an American folk song. The first published version appeared as "Levee Song" in Carmina Princetonia, a book of Princeton University songs published in 1894. The earliest known recording is by the Sandhills Sixteen, released by Victor Records in 1927.

Music

The melody of the opening line of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" may have been inspired by the very similar melody at the beginning of the cello solo about one minute into Franz von Suppé's 1846 Poet and Peasant overture.

Lyrics

The verses that generally constitute the modern version of the song are:

I've been working on the railroad

All the live-long day.

I've been working on the railroad

Just to pass the time away.

Can't you hear the whistle blowing,

Rise up so early in the morn;

Can't you hear the captain shouting,

"Dinah, blow your horn!"

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow your horn?

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow your horn?

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah

Someone's in the kitchen I know

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah

Strummin' on the old banjo!

Singin' fee, fie, fiddly-i-o

Fee, fie, fiddly-i-o-o-o-o

Fee, fie, fiddly-i-o

Strummin' on the old banjo.

The 1894 version includes one verse very much like the modern song, though in negro minstrel dialect, and with an intro that is no longer sung and a very different second verse:

(SOLO) I once did know a girl named Grace--

(QUARTET) I'm wukkin' on de levee;

(SOLO) She done brung me to dis sad disgrace

(QUARTET) O' wukkin' on de levee.

I been wukkin' on de railroad

All de livelong day,

I been wukkin' on de railroad

Ter pass de time away.

Doan' yuh hyah de whistle blowin'?

Ris up, so uhly in de mawn;

Doan' yuh hyah de cap'n shouin',

"Dinah, blow yo' hawn?"

Sing a song o' the city;

Roll dat cotton bale;

Niggah aint half so happy

As when he's out o' jail

Norfolk foh its oystahshells,

Boston foh its beans,

Chahleston foh its rice an' cawn,

But foh niggahs New Awleens.