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Long thought to be a traditional prisoner work song or spiritual, research by Stephen Wade (published in 2012 in his book “The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience”) revealed that “Rock Island Line” was actually written in 1929 as part of a marketing campaign for the real Rock Island Line (in full, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad). The railroad encouraged its employees to take part in extra-curricular activities such as singing in choirs and writing songs to build brand awareness and loyalty in their communities (“boosting” in contemporary terminology), and to this end the song exhorted listeners to “Buy your tickets over the Rock Island Lines”. The song’s author Clarence Wilson was an engine wiper (cleaner) who worked at the Biddle Street Shops, the railroad’s central freight yard near Little Rock, Arkansas. He was a member of a vocal group, the Rock Island Colored Booster Quartet, that was based at his workplace and this group first performed his song in December 1929.
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