Train in Vain

"Train in Vain" is a song by the British punk rock band the Clash. It was released as the third and final single from their third studio album, London Calling (1979). The song was not originally listed on the album's track listing,[3][4] appearing as a hidden track at the end of the album. This was because the track was added to the record at the last minute, when the sleeve was already in production. Some editions include the song in the track listing. It was the first Clash song to reach the United States Top 30 charts[3][4] and in 2004, the song was ranked number 298 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[5][6]

"Train in Vain"
1980 New Zealand release
Single by The Clash
from the album London Calling
B-side"London Calling"
Released12 February 1980 (1980-02-12)
Recorded1979
StudioWessex Studios, London
Genre
Length3:09
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Guy Stevens
The Clash singles chronology
"Clampdown"
(1980)		 "Train in Vain"
(1980)		 "Bankrobber"
(1980)
The Clash reissued singles chronology
"London Calling (2nd re-release)"
(1991)		 "Train in Vain (re-release)"
(1991)		 "Complete Control (live)"
(1999)
Audio
"Train in Vain" on YouTube

In the US, the song's title is expanded to "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)", as the words "stand by me" dominate the chorus. It was titled "Train in Vain" in part to avoid confusion with Ben E. King's signature song "Stand by Me".

Origins

The song was written in one night and recorded the next day, near the very end of the recording for London Calling. It was initially intended to be given away as a promotion with the British rock magazine New Musical Express.[7] Sound engineer Bill Price later recalled:

"Train in Vain" was the last song we finished after the artwork went to the printer. A couple of Clash websites describe it as a hidden track, but it wasn't intended to be hidden. The sleeve was already printed before we tacked the song on the end of the master tape.[3]

"Train in Vain" was added after the deal for the band to write a song for an NME flexi disc fell through, and as Mick Jones later commented, "The real story on 'Train in Vain' is that originally we needed a song to give to the NME for a flexi disk that NME was going to do. And then it was decided that it didn't work out or decided the flexi disk didn't work out so we had this spare track we had done as a giveaway. So we put it on London Calling but there wasn't time because the sleeves were already done."[8] The result of its late addition was that it was the only song without lyrics printed on the insert, and was not listed as a track, although its title and position on the original vinyl record was scratched into the vinyl in the needle run-off area on the fourth side of the album.

Meaning and inspiration

When the London Calling album was released, many fans assumed it was called "Stand by Me",[6] but the meaning of the song's title is obscure as the title phrase cannot be found in the lyrics. Mick Jones, who wrote most of the song, offered this explanation: "The track was like a train rhythm, and there was, once again, that feeling of being lost."[3]

The song has been interpreted by some as a response to "Typical Girls" by the Slits, which mentions girls standing by their men. Mick Jones split up with Slits guitarist Viv Albertine shortly before he wrote the song.[9]

The song has often been interpreted to be about Jones' volatile relationship with Albertine, who commented "I'm really proud to have inspired that but often he won't admit to it. He used to get the train to my place in Shepherds Bush and I would not let him in. He was bleating on the doorstep. That was cruel".[10] The couple separated around the time of the London Calling recording sessions.

Formats and track listings

"Train in Vain" was released in mainland Europe as a 33 rpm single in June 1980 (catalogue number CBS 8370) and included the tracks "Bankrobber" and "Rockers Galore... UK Tour". In the UK, "Train in Vain" was not released as a single at the time; only "Bankrobber" and "Rockers Galore... UK Tour" were released on a 7" single in August 1980 (catalogue number CBS 8323). The song was released in the US as a 10" white label promo in 1979 (catalogue number AS 749). The US commercial release of 12 February 1980 (catalogue number 50851) consisted of a 7" that included the track "London Calling". The 1991 UK re-release (catalogue number 657430 7) included the track "The Right Profile". The formats and track listings of "Train in Vain (Stand By Me)" are tabulated below:[11]

Year B-side Format Label Country Note
1979
  1. "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" – 3:10
 33⅓ rpm 10" vinyl Epic AS 749 US Promo
1980
  1. "London Calling"
 45 rpm 7" vinyl Epic 50851 US
1980
  1. "Bankrobber" – 4:33
  2. "Rockers Galore... UK Tour" – 4:39
 33⅓ rpm 7" vinyl CBS 8370 Europe
1991
  1. "The Right Profile" – 3:51
 45 rpm 7" vinyl Columbia 657430 7 UK Reissue
1991
  1. "The Right Profile" – 3:55
  2. "Train In Vain ('91 7" Remix)" – 3:02
  3. "Death or Glory" – 3:56
 CD Columbia 657430 5 UK Reissue
1980
  1. "The Right Profile"
 Cassette tape CBS 50851 UK

"Train in Vain" also features on the Clash albums The Story of the Clash, Volume 1 (1988), Clash on Broadway (1991), The Singles (1991), From Here to Eternity: Live (1999) (live version recorded on 13 June 1981 at Bond's Casino, New York), The Essential Clash (2003), Singles Box (2006) (disc eleven — Spanish 7" issue), The Singles (2007), Sound System (2013) and The Clash Hits Back (2013).

Personnel

This song (along with "London Calling", "The Guns of Brixton", and "Clampdown") was performed on the Clash's debut television appearance in the United States, on ABC's Fridays.

Covers

"Train in Vain" has become an influential and well-known Clash song, covered by artists as diverse as the British indie dance band EMF, the Brazilian rock band Ira! on their acoustic special for MTV Brasil in 2004, where the song was titled "Pra ficar comigo", the blues-oriented hard rock jam band The Black Crowes, the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers, and the Swedish indie rock band Shout Out Louds.[3][12]

Annie Lennox recorded a soulful, dance-beat cover of the song on her 1995 album Medusa, and performed the song in her appearance during the twentieth season of Saturday Night Live. The band Third Eye Blind recorded a version for the 1999 tribute album Burning London: The Clash Tribute.[4] The Afghan Whigs, who covered "Lost in the Supermarket" on the same album, added portions of "Train In Vain" and the Ben E. King song "Stand By Me" to their contribution.

"Stupid Girl", a song released by the US rock group Garbage in 1996, is musically built around the drum rhythm from "Train in Vain".[3] Both Joe Strummer and Mick Jones received a co-writing credit and royalties from the song under its original release. In 2007, when the song was remastered for the band's greatest hits album, the credit for the song was expanded to include Paul Simonon and Topper Headon.[13]

Charts
Year Chart (1980-81/1991-92) Peak
position
1980 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[14] 62
1980 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[15] 26
1980 US Billboard Hot 100[16] 23
1980 US Dance Club Songs (Billboard)[17] 30

References
  1. Nascimento, Débora (October 2009). "The Clash: Clássico do rock politizado chega (atual) aos 30 anos". Continente multicultural (in Portuguese). No. 106. p. 83.
  2. Egan, Sean (2009). Los discos del cambio (in Spanish). Ediciones Robinbook. p. 251. ISBN 9788496924475.
  3. Black, Johnny (May 2002). "The Greatest Songs Ever! "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)" Article on Blender :: The Ultimate Guide to Music and More". Blender. Archived from the original (ASPX) on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2007. a, b) Thrown together at the last minute in the dying hours of sessions for the Clash's classic 1980 album, London Calling, 'Train in Vain (Stand by Me)' was not even listed on the record's cover. It was the Clash song that almost wasn't, but it turned out to be the one that brought the band into the Top 30 for the first time.
    c) 'Train in Vain', written in one night and recorded the next day, was initially going to be given away as a promotion with the British rock magazine New Musical Express. Only after that failed to happen did the band consider the song for inclusion on the album.
    d) As Wessex Studios' manager and house engineer Bill Price points out, 'Train in Vain' was 'the last song we finished after the artwork went to the printer. A couple of Clash Web sites describe it as a hidden track, but it wasn't intended to be hidden. The sleeve was already printed before we tacked the song on the end of the master tape.'
    e) The meaning of the song's title is equally obscure. Sometimes it seems as if every little boy who once dreamed of growing up to be a train engineer became a songwriter instead. With the Clash, however, things are never quite what they seem — and no train is mentioned in the song. Mick Jones, who wrote most of it, offers a prosaic explanation: 'The track was like a train rhythm, and there was, once again, that feeling of being lost.'
    f) Another curious aspect of "Train in Vain", given the Clash's political stance and reputation for social consciousness, is that it's a love song, with an almost country-and-western lyric that echoes Tammy Wynette's classic weepie "Stand by Your Man".
    g) If the Clash were hard-line British punks who despised America as much as their song 'I'm So Bored with the USA' suggested, why did 'Train in Vain' have such a made-in-the-USA feel? Strummer has admitted that despite the band's anti-American posturing, much of its inspiration came from this side of the Atlantic Ocean. 'I was drenched in blues and English R&B as a teenager,' the singer says. 'Then I went to black American R&B with my [pre-Clash] group the 101ers. Mick had heard a lot of that stuff too, and he had this extra dimension of the glam/trash New York Dolls/Stooges scene.'
    h, i) 'Train in Vain'... has become a Clash standard, covered by artists as diverse as EMF, Dwight Yoakam, Annie Lennox and Third Eye Blind. Its influence crops up elsewhere, too: Listening to 'Train in Vain' and Garbage's 'Stupid Girl' in succession makes clear where Garbage drummer and producer Butch Vig located 'Stupid Girls distinctive drum loops.
  4. Janovitz, Bill. "Train in Vain". Song Review. Allmusic. Retrieved 4 December 2007. a, b) Despite being hidden — it was originally not listed on the sleeve, for the band felt it was too commercial (imagine any late-'90s 'alternative' bands taking a similar stance) — 'Train in Vain' cracked the Top 40 in the US. This was remarkable in 1980 for a so-called punk rock band. The song was literally the hidden gem of the master-stroke London Calling.
    d, e, f) Masters of pale pop Third Eye Blind recorded a weak sugar-coated, suburban hip-hop version in an ill-advised 'tribute' on Burning London: The Clash Tribute (1999), which is almost a disaster from start to finish. On the other hand, on her 1995 album Medusa, Annie Lennox manages to pull off what Third Eye Blind seemed to be attempting: a soulful, dance-beat cover of the song. The differences are that Lennox can actually sing and the production and arrangement are thought-out and well-crafted. In addition, Dwight Yoakam turns in a fine, countrified rendition on Under the Covers (1997).
  5. "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". RollingStone. 9 December 2004. Archived from the original on 25 October 2006. Retrieved 22 November 2007. 292. Train in Vain, The Clash
  6. "Train in Vain The Clash". The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Rolling Stone. 9 December 2004. Retrieved 22 November 2007. 'Train in Vain' was the hidden track at the end of the Clash's London Calling, unlisted on the sleeve or on the label. It didn't even have a proper title; fans initially assumed it was called 'Stand by Me', after the chorus. But it became a surprise US hit, with hard-charging drums and weary vocals from guitarist Jones, who wrote the bitter love song in his grandmother's flat.
  7. "The Uncut Crap — Over 56 Things You Never Knew About The Clash". NME. London: IPC Magazines. 3. 16 March 1991. ISSN 0028-6362. OCLC 4213418. "Train In Vain" isn't listed on the sleeve credits for "London Calling" because it was originally going to be a flexi give-away with NME. Unfortunately, the idea proved too expensive and the track went on the LP instead.
    Related news articles:
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
    Related news articles:
    • "MTV Rockumentary Part 2". londonsburning.org. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 6 December 2007. The real story on "Train In Vain" is that originally we needed a song to give to the NME for a flexi disk that NME was going to do. And then it was decided that it didn't work out or decided the flexi disk didn't work out so we had this spare track we had done as a giveaway. So we put it on London Calling but their wasn't time because the sleeves were already done.
  9. Gray, Marcus (26 October 2007). "Marcus Gray on the ongoing pop influence of 'Stand By Me' - Guardian Unlimited Arts". Arts. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 3 December 2007. In 1979, the Slits released their highly idiosyncratic avant-punk dub single "Typical Girls". The titular girls worry about clothes, spots, fat and smells, and conform to one of two stereotypes: either they're femme fatales or they're downtrodden drudges who "stand by their men", a reference to the Tammy Wynette song.
    Typical Girls stalled at No 60 in the UK, but one man paying attention was Mick Jones of the Clash. His volatile relationship with Slits guitarist Viv Albertine had recently come to an end, leaving him distraught. His band's third album, London Calling, was nearly complete, but he was inspired to write a last-minute addition. It opens with the line, "You say you stand by your man ..." - a misreading of "Typical Girls", wilful or otherwise — and its oft-repeated chorus is, "You didn't stand by me, no, not at all." Lyrically, then, it follows a chain of reference back to both Wynette and King, and offers a negative echo of both: the "walls come tumbling down", and the jilted protagonist can't be happy or keep "the wolves at bay" without the woman's love and support.
  10. "Post punk band interviews/photos: clash - slits - ruts - gang of four - Viv Albertine (Slits)". Eccentricsleevenotes.com. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  11. "Albums by The Clash — Rate Your Music". rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  12. Pirnia, Garin (25 October 2007). "Radio Free Chicago : Shout Out Louds w/ Johnossi @ Logan Square 10/19/07". Radio Free Chicago. Retrieved 4 December 2007. Half way through the song, the group burst into "Train in Vain" by the Clash then back to their song. The Shout Outs successfully conquer America and our hearts.
  13. "Garbage and Absolute Garbage album booklets — compared credits for 1995's "Stupid Girl" and 2007's "Stupid Girl (Remastering)""
  14. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 0189b." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
  15. "Charts.nz – The Clash – Train In Vain". Top 40 Singles.
  16. "The Clash Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  17. "The Clash Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard.

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