Why does Dylan like Johnny Cash’s Train Of Love..,

Train of love’s a-comin’, big black wheels a-hummin’
People waitin’ at the station, happy hearts are drummin’
Trainman tell me maybe, ain’t you got my baby
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home.

Now stop your whistle blowin’, ’cause I got ways of knowin’
Your bringin’ other people’s lovers, but my own keeps goin’
Train of love’s deceivin’, when she’s not gone she’s leavin’
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home

Train of love’s now hastin’, sweethearts standin’ waitin’
Here and there and everywhere, there’s going to be embracin’
Trainman tell me maybe, ain’t you got my baby
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home

Train of love’s a-leavin’, leavin’ my heart grievin’
But early or late, I sit and wait, because I’m still believin’
We’ll walk away together, though I may wait forever
Every so often everybody’s baby gets the urge to roam
But everybody’s baby but mine’s comin’ home

So we can guess Bob particularly likes it because it was an early song that made an impact – and it probably made an impact because of the “lost love” theme – with the twist that everyone else is ok but I am the one poor person whose lover is not returning.

Given that at this age we may take it that Bob had not had too many lovers, and probably none who had left him and taken a train ride and then refused to return, this is a typical teenage fantasy of the land of being grown up.  Being grown up here means being old enough to have had a lover and lost her and for her not to return – it is a case of having the emotions that affect people much later in life.

There is also an element of the isolated wanderer that has been such a part of so many Bob Dylan songs – the hobo, the man bidding his restless farewell, the woman sung about by Elvis Presley in his first record, “My Baby Left Me”.

It might be a woman that is the cause, as with the Presley song and with this Cash song, but it doesn’t have to be – just something inexplicable happens and the lady moves on – and in this case refuses to return.

By 1962 Dylan was himself writing songs within this tradition such as Down the Highway and was taking others as his own such as Corrina Corrina.

In fact we see this theme being used over and over again during the year with a number of other compositions such as

• Tomorrow is a long time (Lost love)
• Long Time Gone (Moving on)
• Don’t think twice (Song of Leaving)
• Kingsport Town (Lost love, moving on)

Clearly Dylan loved the theme and his love of this song is, I suspect, a reflection of that feeling for this type of song.

What else is here?

An index to our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.

There is an alphabetic index to the 550+ Dylan compositions reviewed on the site which you will find it here.  There are also 500+ other articles on different issues relating to Dylan.  The other subject areas are also shown at the top under the picture.

We also have a discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook which mostly relates to Bob Dylan today.  Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

And please do note   The Bob Dylan Project, which lists every Dylan song in alphabetical order, and has links to licensed recordings and performances by Dylan and by other artists, is starting to link back to our reviews.