Down Bound Train

For the Bruce Springsteen song "Downbound Train", see Downbound Train.

Down Bound Train is a song written by Chuck Berry. It was inspired by Berry's "fire and brimstone" religious upbringing.^[5]

"Down Bound Train"
Single by Chuck Berry
from the album After School Session
A-side	"No Money Down"
Released	January 1956[1]
Recorded	December 1955[2]
Studio	Universal Recording Corp. (Chicago)[3]
Genre	Rock and roll[4]
Label	Chess
Songwriter(s)	Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry singles chronology
"Thirty Days" (1955) "Down Bound Train" (1956) "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956)

It is a song about redemption and a warning against alcohol abuse. A man who has too much to drink falls asleep on a bar room floor and has a vivid dream about riding a train, which is driven by the devil. When the man wakes up he renounces the drink.

"Down Bound Train" was released in December 1955 as the B Side of "No Money Down". The title is sometimes given as "The Down Bound Train" or "Downbound Train."^[6][7]

It is one of the first rock records to employ fade-in and fade-out. Negativland performed and recorded "Hellbound Plane" in concert; it is a parody of "Downbound Train" and suggested fictional character Dick Vaughn had died in a plane crash.

Cover versions

In 2020, Vika and Linda cover the song for their album, Sunday (The Gospel According to Iso).^[8][9] Covered by George Thorogood and the Destroyers, and renamed Hellbound Train, on their 1999 album Half a Boy/Half a Man.