Songs about Engineering

[Roger QuaintanceParticipant @rogerquaintance14196]

screw that I'm outta here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZWiHQOhKBc

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Diesel Power from the Fat of the Land album by Prodigy

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Early Einstürzende Neubauten songs had a very industrial sound, much of the sound was produced with scrap metal.

Mike

[Keith HaleParticipant @keithhale68713]

As I recall, "an engineer told me before he died" is the first line to a song simply called "The Engineer's Song"

It features twice on an album released 1965(?) Rugby Songs Vol 2 by the Jock Strapp Ensemble on Surprise Records ILP 1012.

Looking at it now brings back a lot of memories.

Would I play it again – yes

Dare I – no!

 

 

 

Edited By Keith Hale on 24/02/2022 12:32:09

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Good grief! 52 replies. This will take a while to read…

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Martin Kyte on 24/02/2022 10:58:00:

Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters

"Bleedin' radar crew, bin usin' my spanners for stirrin' their tea."

;O)

Martin

"Balloons were easy, a simple pin, or a knife in the case of the zeppelin "

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

The children's TV animation Chigley had various engineering songs.

I've just disappeared down a rabbit hole watching it… Here's an episode which has a song about the life of a Post Office Telephone Engineer, and one about a mechanical digger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIUhaEpM_bA

starting at 1 hour 48 minutes. It's got real telephone bells too!

George

Edited By Georgineer on 24/02/2022 18:16:23

[Graham StoppaniParticipant @grahamstoppani46499]

Posted by Andy Stopford on 23/02/2022 20:09:25:

For a problematic interface between man and machine, how about "The Widowmaker" from "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters"?

Come to think of it, "Death Trap" by Hawkwind describes mechanical failure

Edited By Graham Stoppani on 26/02/2022 07:45:55

[Paul RhodesParticipant @paulrhodes20292]

Stretching the brief slightly.

Bernard Cribbins ; Right Said Fred.

Perhaps it captures the sentiments and though processes of our hobbyist engineering end of the spectrum. Imagine an evening achieving little in the workshop,comple with head scratching and multiple cups of tea.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

……… and in the same vein "Fixing a hole" by The Beatles.

This is getting silly now!

John

 

Edited By John Hinkley on 26/02/2022 11:50:26

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by John Hinkley on 26/02/2022 11:50:13:

…This is getting silly now!

John

Time for my contribution then!

The chuck on the lathe goes round and round
Round and round
Round and round
The chuck on the lathe goes round and round
All day long

The ways on the lathe go swish, swish, swish
Swish, swish, swish
Swish, swish, swish
The ways on the lathe go swish, swish, swish
All day long

The belts on the lathe go up and down
Up and down
Up and down
The belts on the lathe go up and down
All day long

The motor on the lathe goes flash, bang, pop
Flash, bang, pop
Flash, bang, pop
The motor on the lathe goes flash, bang, pop
All day long

The bloke on the lathe goes what the hell
What the hell
What the hell
The bloke on the lathe goes what the hell
All day long

Sung to the tune of "Buffalo Gals". In this version Mr Bruce Springstein has forgotten my words.

Any resemblance to a well-known nursery rhyme is purely coincidental…

Dave

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

The first one that comes into my mind starts: I had a girl with a ——————-.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Ahem…..

Restoring a little decorum to the proceedings…..

I have only a hazy recollection of it but I think there is a song that is a paen to the sewing-machine – possibly for advertising them. There is also a witty piece of light music written for typewriter and orchestra – I forget the proper title and its composer. The end-of-line bell features prominently.

Wichita Lineman, a huge hit for its first performer Glen Campbell, was composed in 1986 by Jimmy Webb. His inspiration was seeing a solitary lineman silhouetted against the setting sun, working atop a telephone pole, deep in rural Oklahoma.

'

Blacksmithing has its musical references:

The Anvil Chorus – from Il Trovatore by Guiseppi Verdi, is well-known. Actually The Gypsy Chorus by direct translation, the smiths being Spanish gypsies singing their praises of work, wine and women! (Sounds good!) [Source: Wikipedia – with lyrics in Italian and English]

Perhaps slightly less familiar but altogether darker, is the chorus of anvils – instrumentally – in part of Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Niebelung. I am not sure, but I think the forging is supposed to include that of the eponymous, accursed ring, from the gold stolen from the Rhine Maidens.

The art world fondly imagines forging to sound like frantic bell-ringing!

'

Noel, Nicholas –

Proud Mary, in Creedence Clearwater Revival's song, is indeed the name of the river-boat but as the setting for the narrator's rootless life as a gambler on the vessel. The impression given me by the rather metaphorical description of the ships' progress, is that the voyages were long and tedious.

Incidentally I heard on the radio quite some years ago now a dramatised, serial version of the original Showboat – the 1926 novel by Edna Ferber – on which the Kern & Hammerstein musical is based. Ferber had done a lot of research into this American form of entertainment venue, and in the prologue she explained that a show-boat was a floating theatre on a barge towed from town to town by tug. So not the ornate stern-wheeler ship of later publicity for the musical, then.

'

Staying on the mechanical transport theme:

The narrator in the late Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell has two loves in his life: his girlfriend whom he leaves behind in his rush to escape the grim city, and his motorcycle:

" I'm gonna hit the highway like a battering ram
On a silver black phantom bike
When the metal is hot and the engine is hungry
And we're all about to see the light "

Prescient words; for too much rush, too much thinking of her instead of the road ahead; the song ending with his dying thoughts, having crashed on a sharp bend.

[Source: The Genius web-site, I found simply by title and "lyrics".]

'

The old instrumental standard Pacific 231 refers to the locomotive of course – it was written in 1923 by the Swiss-born Alfred Honeggar, who later lived in France where the railwaymen counted axles rather than wheels (or if you like, the wheels visible in broadside view).

' ' '

While much more recently, Michael Flanders and Donald Swan mourned the loss of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, in their Slow Train to Blandford Forum (one of the Dorset towns along the SR and LMS, Bath – Bournemouth line). The song plods sorrowfully from rail-joint to rail-joint in a slow " 1-and-, 2-and- " piano continuo.

Even older than these though… Funicali, Funicula. By Luigi Denza, lyrics Peppino Turco; 1880. A big hit from the start and still widely performed / adapted / plagiarised (even covered by the Grateful Dead!), it celebrates the opening of the first funicular railway up Mt. Vesuvius. It is actually a love song though. The singer is inviting his sweetheart to ride with him to the top where they can admire the view – though his marriage-proposal in the last verse is excitedly brief and to the point!

(Source: Wikipedia, whose article gives the lyrics in Italian and English.)

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 27/02/2022 00:10:30:

Wichita Lineman, a huge hit for its first performer Glen Campbell, was composed in 1986 by Jimmy Webb. His inspiration was seeing a solitary lineman silhouetted against the setting sun, working atop a telephone pole, deep in rural Oklahoma.

'

1968. i was singing along to that song when I was still in short trousers. Listened to it on an old Philco valve radio I scavenged off the local tip. Had no idea what a lineman was, or a Wichita or a county. But it's still a great song by a great singer.

Edited By Hopper on 27/02/2022 02:27:02

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf. Theme song from the movie Easy Rider

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way

Inspired a whole generation of future motorcyclists. Within a fortnight of the movie's showing at our local theatre, we all had homemade extended forks on our push bikes. Totally unsafe made from other fork legs cut off another bike and jammed over our existing fork legs. All held together by gravity and youthful enthusiasm.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Ace of Spades?

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Posted by Hopper on 27/02/2022 02:31:25:

Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf. Theme song from the movie Easy Rider

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way

Inspired a whole generation of future motorcyclists. Within a fortnight of the movie's showing at our local theatre, we all had homemade extended forks on our push bikes. Totally unsafe made from other fork legs cut off another bike and jammed over our existing fork legs. All held together by gravity and youthful enthusiasm.

A schoolmate of mine fitted the rear wheel from a small wheeled Moulten bicycle to the rear of a standard framed bicycle, to recover the required ground clearance to pedal the creation he cut the rear downtubes off, bent the lower fork down and bolted new longer downtubes in.
Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 27/02/2022 17:53:15

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Glen Campbell was not only a good singer, his guitar playing skills as a member of the session band the Wrecking Crew were superb.

Mike

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Mike Poole on 27/02/2022 10:45:50:

Posted by Hopper on 27/02/2022 02:31:25:

Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf. Theme song from the movie Easy Rider

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way

Inspired a whole generation of future motorcyclists. Within a fortnight of the movie's showing at our local theatre, we all had homemade extended forks on our push bikes. Totally unsafe made from other fork legs cut off another bike and jammed over our existing fork legs. All held together by gravity and youthful enthusiasm.

A schoolmate of mine fitted the rear wheel from a small wheeled Moulten bicycle to the rear of a standard framed bicycle, to recover the required ground clearance to peddle the creation he cut the rear downtubes off, bent the lower fork down and bolted new longer downtubes in.
Mike

Junior engineers at work!

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Mike Poole on 27/02/2022 10:52:51:

Glen Campbell was not only a good singer, his guitar playing skills as a member of the session band the Wrecking Crew were superb.

Mike

I didnt know that. I will have to track some of their music down.

[Norman BillinghamParticipant @normanbillingham91454]

Anyone remember Billy Bean and his Funny Machine? TV puppets from about 1953. As I recall the rather catchy title song went "Billy Bean built a machine to see what it could do. He made it out of sticks and stones, and nuts and bolts and glue" I don't recall the rest.

It predated cnc – the machine could build whatever Billy Bean drew on a screen

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Glen Campbell

this is a bit about Glen Campbell and some of his session guitar work

Mike

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, Glen Campbell had some great hit singles in the UK but only five of them got into the top ten. Wichita Linesman got to number seven and All I Have To Do Is Dream (with Bobbie Gentry) got to number three, the other three; Honey Come Back, It's Only Make Believe and Rhinestone Cowboy, all got to number four. Honey Come Back and It's Only Make believe were two of my favourites along with Galveston, which got to number fourteen, another one I liked was Southern Nights which got to number twenty eight, but he was a very good artist and had ten chart entries in the UK.

Ref. Guinness book of British Hit Singles 13th edition.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 27/02/2022 17:14:36

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Was lucky enough to see Glen Campbell touring as part of the Beach Boys lineup back in the 90s.

Rob.

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Posted by Chris Gill on 23/02/2022 16:57:31:

Back in the70's the Teesside Fettlers often sang at the folk club in the Sun Inn, Stockton-on-Tees. They produced two LPs with a number of songs about steel making, mining, and other aspects of life in the area. One of my favourite refrains is from the song "Steelmen" …

Hammer it, weld it, roll it to and fro,

Cleveland steel is of the best, I'll have you's all to know.

Forge it, cast it, mould it how you like,

Neat as a Geordie hinnie bird and tough as a Yorkshire tyke.

Ah well, the rolling mills and blast furnaces may be gone now but I still have this on the workshop play list.

Ah, that brings back fond memories. As an ex Redcar steelworker the one that has always had the most meaning for me is Ring of Iron.

[Author]

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