Takin' Me Away From You Train Chords
A nice little song by a seemingly overlooked folk singer named Len Chandler.
These chords are transcribed from his appearance on Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest which I think is the best recording of the song. Len released a few studio albums during the mid-late 60s but they all sound a bit forced and over-produced to me - the live recordings he appears on are well worth a listen
While this particular song is more personal and sentimental, he first became known as a protest singer during the civil rights movement. Here’s a spicy verse he added to Which Side Are You On:
Come all you bourgeois black men
With all your excess fat
A few days in the county jail
Will sure get rid of that
By contrast his most famous work is probably the children’s song Beans In My Ears, which was supposedly banned after it started a trend of kids putting beans in their ears…
Anyway, here are the chords:
Standard tuning, capo 3rd fret (recording is slightly flat). Follows a basic alternating bass picking pattern - see here.
G Bm/G G C/G G I put my ticket in my pocket and took my guitar from the wall C/g Am7/f# G G/F# Em And set it with my suitcase by the railing in the hall G C G D/F# G I hate so much this leaving you it's taught me how to stall Em G D/F# If I could hit it lucky I'd never leave at all To catch that G A B C Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' G D/F# G Taking me away from you train G A B C Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' G C G Taking me away from you train I'd rather take a rattle snake and hold him to my chest Than to stop the singing of these songs that I love best So I'll leave home when I have to and I'll come back when I can Just to keep on keepin on I've got to be a man To catch that Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Taking me away from you train Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Taking me away from you train Hey I'm going downstairs love just to catch myself a ride And to catch myself a-feeling lonesome inside to catch myself a-hurting that bangs around the brain to catch myself a-hurting that's worse than any pain to catch that Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Taking me away from you train Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Taking me away from you train When my job is finsihed and my fare is in my hand I'll be heading home to you the quickest way I can The train that I'll be riding on will have the sweetest sound The sound of home, sweet angel wings as home to you i'm bound I'll catch that Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Bringing me home again train Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Bringing me home again train All these times that I've been leaving you I know it's been all wrong We'll seldom have to say goodbye since you can come along I haven't it it lucky yet but thing aren't quite so bad Together we'll be travelling, together we'll be glad To catch that Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Going off together now train Rattlin', rumblin', snortin' and grumblin' Going off together train And surely as sure a barbed wire fence can't hold back the tide Together we'll be breaking through so it's together we should ride But my schedule's getting tighter baby and those trains just take so long I guess we'll have to catch a plane and write another song