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Spanish Train and Other Stories

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Released
  
1 November 1975

Producer
  
Robin Geoffrey Cable

Release date
  
1 November 1975

Genre
  
Rock music

Length
  
43:28

Artist
  
Chris de Burgh

Label
  
A&M Records

Spanish Train and Other Stories httpsimagesnasslimagesamazoncomimagesI5

Recorded
  
Ramport and Scorpio Studios

Spanish Train and Other Stories(1975)
  
At the End of a Perfect Day(1977)

Similar
  
Far Beyond These Castle W, Man on the Line, Into the Light, At the End of a Perfect Day, Eastern Wind

Spanish Train and Other Stories is the second album by Chris de Burgh, released by A&M Records in 1975.

Contents

Spanish train subtitled


Track listing

  1. "Spanish Train" – 5:00
  2. "Lonely Sky" – 3:52
  3. "This Song For You" – 4:14
  4. "Patricia the Stripper" – 3:30
  5. "A Spaceman Came Travelling" – 5:10
  6. "I'm Going Home" – 3:34
  7. "The Painter" – 4:20
  8. "Old Friend" – 3:40
  9. "The Tower" – 5:22
  10. "Just Another Poor Boy" – 4:46

All songs written by Chris de Burgh.

Personnel

  • Chris de Burgh – acoustic guitars, lead and all backing vocals, piano on "The Tower" and "This Song For You"
  • Barry de Souza – drums
  • Ray Glynn – electric guitars
  • Lennox Laington – percussion
  • Tony Hymas – keyboards
  • Tony Reeves – bass, string bass on "A Spaceman Came Travelling"
  • Phillip Goodhand-Tait – harmonium
  • Chris Laurence – string bass
  • Ken Freeman – string synthesizer
  • Chris Mercer – saxophone on "The Painter"
  • Mick Eves – saxophone on "The Painter"
    • Technical
  • The Strings, Choir, Recorders and Ocarinas on "The Tower" and "Lonely Sky" were arranged by Robert Kirby who also arranged the brass for "Old Friend" and "This Song For You"
  • David Hentschel arranged and performed synthesizer on "A Spaceman Came Travelling"
  • Richard Hewson arranged the strings and brass for "Just Another Poor Boy" and "Spanish Train"
  • Mixed at Scorpio and AIR Studios.
  • Engineered by Robin Geoffrey Cable, assisted by Mark Dobson, Ian Major and John Kelly.
  • Front and Back Illustrations: Bill Imhoff
  • Inside Photography: Clive Arrowsmith
  • Art Direction: Fabio Nicoli
  • Design: Junie Osaki

    • Controversy

    The title track is a story about a train carrying the souls of the dead to the Underworld. Jesus and Lucifer are playing Poker - gambling with the souls. Lucifer cheats and wins the game. The song finishes with the stanza:

    "Far away, in some recess,
    The Lord and the Devil are now playing Chess.
    The Devil still cheats and wins more souls,

    The song was deemed blasphemous in South Africa, and a ban was ordered. A&M records sued to get the ban overturned - the suit was eventually successful. However, while the suit was in progress, A&M released the album under the title "Lonely Sky and Other Stories" (without "Spanish Train"). This album is considered a collector's item today - copies are extremely rare. Perversely, the ban only applied to the LP record, so the cassette issue of Spanish Train was always freely available.

    Songs

    1Spanish Train5:00
    2Lonely Sky3:54
    3This Song For You4:13

    References

    Spanish Train and Other Stories Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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