Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

The lines are now rusted and overgrown with weeds (and sometimes squatters); the cars are achingly still and the main station in downtown Kingston a rusted hulk. But when Ken Boothe wrote The Train is Coming in 1968 it was not an empty promise of a rail service that successive governments have pledged to revive.

It was a love song about leaving, loss and the promise of reunion which has endured the decline of the train service.

Ken Boothe wrote and sang to Jackie Mittoo's arrangement at Studio One:

"I say the train is coming baby

I say the train is coming now

Every day I pray for this little hour

Now the time has come and I want you to stand by me

Because the train is coming baby

I say the train is coming now

And we will roam this land ..."

Poor community

"We lived in a poor community, Denham Town," Boothe told The Sunday Gleaner. In terms of transportation beyond the regular motor vehicle "all we knew about was train. Anytime you going to swim or anything, you pass the train line. It was the closest thing to us as transportation."

Boothe pointed out that in those days, not many people were leaving Jamaica by plane. By ship, it took two weeks to reach England.

He went closer than just stepping over the steel rails, as "we could see it, touch it. We used to go down to the train station on Darling Street". There, Boothe and his friends got a chance to go on the engine, see how it worked and watch as the coal was fired up. He laughs as he tells The Sunday Gleaner that some of the engineers were rude, but some helped out the fascinated youngsters.

And as his songwriting skills developed, Boothe used what he saw and touched in The Train is Coming, which he describes as a "nice love song", commenting "and funny, it live so long".

It was recorded very shortly after being written, as Boothe says "Them time Downbeat groom me. Downbeat (Studio One) was a place you could just go in and record, Gaylads, Delroy Wilson, any one of us."

There is an outstanding tenor saxophone solo in The Train is Coming, Boothe saying that Sam who played has died.

Second lease on life

The Train is Coming got a second lease on life in a later era of Jamaican music via a remake with Shaggy, which appeared on his smash Boombastic album as well as in the 1995 movie Money Train, starring Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Lopez and Woody Harrelson. There was also a music video for the remake, the connection for the track to be done made by Shaggy's manager, Robert Livingston.

And Ken Boothe points out that "many people do it, like UB 40".

So while the engines and cars remain stationary, the train is still coming for Ken Boothe and his legion of fans who happily dance along as he twirls, twists and turns to an enduring image and emotion.