Rock Island Line
Lead Belly (1937). Excerpt from "The 50 Songs that Gave Birth to Rock and Roll"
Like many pre-war Delta traditionals, “Rock Island Line” is inspired by real life, and its origin is traceable to those who actually lived it. The first known version of “Rock Island Line” was composed by a member of the Rock Island Colored Booster Quartet, whose members were all employed at the Little Rock, Arkansas, freight yard for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. It doesn’t get much more authentic than that.
The earliest extant recordings of the song were captured by legendary folklorist John Lomax, who traveled to several Arkansas state prisons in 1934 to commit chain-gang chanting to posterity. This resulted in the following version by a man named Kelly Pace and his fellow convicts of Cummins State Farm prison.
Lomax was accompanied on his trip by Huddie Ledbetter, a 12-string guitarist better known as Lead Belly.
The 1888-born Louisiana native had, himself, spent multiple stints in prison. One stretch was a murder rap for killing a man in a fight over a woman. And yet, on two separate occasions, Lead Belly earned pardons by gifting songs to sitting governors.
The second time, he did it with the help of Lomax, which is what earned him the freedom to travel to Arkansas with the great folklorist. This is where both men first heard “Rock Island Line.” In 1937, they collaborated on the seminal modern version of this song.
“Rock Island Line” tells the humorous story of smugglers moving slot machines over the rails under the guise of transporting livestock. And it has been recorded in every decade since, perhaps most importantly by British skiffle-godfather Lonnie Donegan (1954).
It was this song that brought Donegan to the attention of young Britons everywhere, launching the early aspirations of the future Beatles, Kinks, and Stones.
In spite of his checkered past and a famously explosive temper, Lead Belly would enjoy considerable recognition during his lifetime, though never a great financial fortune. Through the next several decades, Lead Belly would be the subject of high-profile newsreels and magazine articles for his unusual path to freedom and fame. He would also become a fixture in folk circles, where he played alongside other luminaries like Josh White, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie.
Lead Belly passed on in 1949, at age 61, leaving behind a generous trove of recordings without equal among his contemporaries.
See the full list of 50 Songs that Gave Birth to Rock and Roll