Down Bound Train
| "Down Bound Train" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Chuck Berry | ||||
| from the album After School Session | ||||
| A-side | "No Money Down" | |||
| Released | January 1956 | |||
| Recorded | December 1955 | |||
| Studio | Universal Recording Corp. (Chicago) | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Label | Chess | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Chuck Berry | |||
| Chuck Berry singles chronology | ||||
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Down Bound Train is a song written by Chuck Berry. It was inspired by Berry's "fire and brimstone" religious upbringing.
It is a song about redemption and a warning against alcohol abuse. A man who has too much to drink falls asleep on a bar room floor and has a vivid dream about riding a train, which is driven by the devil. When the man wakes up he renounces the drink.
"Down Bound Train" was released in December 1955 as the B Side of "No Money Down". The title is sometimes given as "The Down Bound Train" or "Downbound Train."
It is one of the first rock records to employ fade-in and fade-out. Negativland performed and recorded "Hellbound Plane" in concert; it is a parody of "Downbound Train" and suggested fictional character Dick Vaughn had died in a plane crash.