Western Railroad Discussion > What was the Double E Warren Zevon referred to?

Listening to good old fashioned rock n' roll, I heard Warrren Zevon's
Poor Poor Pitiful Me. It is a song about failed suicide, but he wrote this :

"I laid my head on the railroad track,
Waiting for the Double E,
But the train don't run by here no more
Poor poor pitiful me"

Wonder which double E ? Warren is from Chicago so the possibilities of
Double E's are almost endless. And was he referring to EA's E6's E8's?
What if he was thinking of E8/E7 combo, like what periodically pulled MoPac's
Eagles? Surely not CB&Q's E3 A+B - would that qualify as Double E's?

I wish Warren was around so that I could ask him.

Some please help me before they put me in a straightjacket.......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/10 18:34 by ArgyleEagle.

Perhaps an el line on the CTA? I don't know Chicago well, perhaps someone can help.

Tom Y+

Wow and I thought it was a Terri Clark original?

abandoned_track Wrote:
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> Wow and I thought it was a Terri Clark original?


Nope.

The New York City subway had (if not has) an EE train. The Chicago El currently uses colors, but I don't know if that has always been the case.

Unless Zevon was a foamer, it strikes me as highly unlikely this was a reference to E units.

(Also, the piece of clothing associated with lunatics is a straitjacket -- as in, tight/confining.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/10 19:12 by toledopatch.

Erie and one of its "E" units= double E!

ArgyleEagle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Listening to good old fashioned rock n' roll, I
> heard Warrren Zevon's
> Poor Poor Pitiful Me. It is a song about failed
> suicide, but he wrote this :
>
> "I laid my head on the railroad track,
> Waiting for the Double E,
> But the train don't run by here no more
> Poor poor pitiful me"
>
> Wonder which double E ? Warren is from Chicago so
> the possibilities of
> Double E's are almost endless. And was he
> referring to EA's E6's E8's?
> What if he was thinking of E8/E7 combo, like what
> periodically pulled MoPac's
> Eagles? Surely not CB&Q's E3 A+B - would that
> qualify as Double E's?
>
> I wish Warren was around so that I could ask him.
>
> Some please help me before they put me in a
> straightjacket......


Double E = End of Existance???

Could it be the “Double E” Bob Dylan mentions in his song “It Takes a lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” perchance?
—Mac

Don’t the moon look good, mama

Shinin’ through the trees?

Don’t the brakeman look good, mama

Flagging down the “Double E?”

Geez...I can remember when Linda Ronstadt sang this song!
No idea about the double E's.
Must be getting old.
Todd Montgomery
Eugene OR

abandoned_track Wrote:
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> Wow and I thought it was a Terri Clark original?


Nope, Zevon wrote it. Clark, Linda Ronstadt and several others did covers. Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt recorded a version for a Zevon tribute album (which is appropriate as some believe Pitiful Me was a bit of a poke at Zevon's good friend Jackson).

It could be that Zevon was referencing the Dylan song and Dylan was likely talking about the EE local train on the New York subway. Another possibility is that Zevon (and maybe Dylan) are referencing a song from 1961 by Bobby Darin called Oo-Ee-Train. It is interesting in that the Darin song has a line "Ooh ooh wee, Come on train have mercy on me", which is similar to Zevon's "Lord, have mercy on me".

Z
"hairy, hairy gent, who ran amok in..... Santa Clara"

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Unless Zevon was a foamer, it strikes me as highly
> unlikely this was a reference to E units.

Could be, see "Nighttime In The Switching Yard" from Excitable Boy.

After the Santa Fe track was lifted near the Pasadena (CA) depot, "The train don't run by here no more" came to mind whenever I drove across town on Del Mar Ave. Not rail related, but another Zevon line that certain situations remind me of is "Send lawyers, guns and money, the **** has hit the fan."