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Why are train songs and trains so important in blues music, and in Negro culture of the early 20th century?

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Why are train songs and trains so important in blues music, and in Negro culture of the early 20th century?

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Poor people, in the early 1900’s did not own cars, and buses did not become common until the 1930’s. For poor farmers, negro and white alike,trains served a one-time need for a particular trip, since trains did not have large purchase prices, maintenance or gasoline costs, or require insurance. Riding a train in the blues sense usually meant making an escape, rather than going for a pleasurable vacation. The “lonesome” whistle of a train, has always held a romantic appeal, whether or not one is traveling to faraway places, romance and adventure, or stuck at home on the farm. Someone, somewhere is getting away from something, or perhaps going up to the big cities to earn more money when that whistle blows, and perhaps the listener wished he were doing the same. Since the blues era was also the peak period of black migration to the northern states to escape from southern poverty, trains could be seen by individuals as a forces taking their loved ones away. The subject of leaving home on

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