I've Been Working on the Railroad

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes working on the railroad "all the live-long day" and waiting for Dinah to blow the horn. He describes someone being "in the kitchen with Dinah, strumming on the old banjo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Carmina Princetonia)
KEYWORDS: railroading work courting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 537-542, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 234, "Working on the Railroad" (1 text plus two unrelated fragments, probably of "Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)"; the "A" text is a jumble starting with this song but followed up by what is probably a "Song of All Songs" fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 234, "Working on the Railroad" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 248, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, with the first verse being this and the second being probably some sort of courting song)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 81, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 130, "Dinah" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 39, "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" (1 short text, with just the first part)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 148, "I Been Wukkin' on de Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 35-36, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 103, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, including some parody verses)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 209, "I've Been Working on the Railroad -- (The Eyes of Texas)"; p. 513, "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 17, "(I've been workin' on the railroad)" (1 mention, from user TempleCat, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 126, 193, 235, 249, 277, "I've Been Working on the Railroad"/"DInah Won't You Blow Your Horn" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #389, pp. 94-95, "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 52, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 20, "Dinah" (1 text, a rare version that omits the "Railroad" verse)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 35, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), pp. 260-261, "(I've been workin' on the levee)" (1 short text)
DT, WORKRAIL
Roud #12606?
RECORDINGS:
Blankenship Family, "Working on the Railroad" (Victor 23583, 1931)
Nancy Finley, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #621, recorded 08/01/2023)
Art Mooney, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Vogue R-713-32, n.d. but prob. 1930s)
Sandhills Sixteen, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Victor 20905, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (on PeteSeeger21) (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Levee Song" (includes the text of this song)
SAME TUNE:
We've Enlisted in the Navy (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 151)
NOTES [218 words]: Although this is surely a composed song, Fuld cannot find any references to the "Railroad" verses prior to 1894 (when it was twice published as "The Levee Song," and in both instances associated with Princeton. Note that the MidwestFolklore text, which has only that part of the song, still referes to working on the levee). No composer is listed in the extant materials.
The "Dinah" verses are dated by Fuld to the period before 1850. How they came together is a mystery; they don't fit all that well -- but as I've never heard the halves done separately (though Scarborough's and Shay's texts consist only of the first part, and the Cohen text, from the Blankenship family omits the"Dinah Won't You Blow" stanza, substituting something Cohen thinks is a school rouser), I keep them together here.
Cohen cites Theodore Raph as claiming the song became popular in 1881. But Cohen himself agrees with Fuld's 1894 date. Probably it will take a much more detailed study than any undertaken so far to finally settle the matter. - RBW
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "'Someone's in the House with Dinah' was sung by Ethiopian minstrels in the 1840s and 1850s, but with a different tune from that known today." - BS
Although this is already a composite song, "The Levee Song" takes it and makes it even more composite. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: FSWB209

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