Dave Village
Name: For the love of steam (an ode to Richard Trevithick)
Artist: Dave Village
Length: 5:24
Preview:
» Download the full track [7mb, MP3]
Biography
In his own words:
In every man's life there comes a time when someone will ask him to write a song about a train - my time came in 2009. I'm a liar, I wasn't specifically asked to write about a train, but simply to write a song about an object from the National Museum Wales [(and it doesn't happen to every man, which is a shame, but don't let that stop you].
I have written songs before - some were about Jehovah's Witnesses, others about dangling hearts, wizards without rooms or lady's eyes (as you do). Generally those subjects were emotive as I had some direct link to the particular song spark (yes, I know wizards). "What museum object could inspire me to write a song?" I thought. It didn't take too long to narrow my choice to the train that generally hangs around the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. It's a working copy and you can watch it go for a spin once a year. I like trains.
Watt? No, Richard Trevithick built the original locomotive, way back in the early 19th century. It's part of his long engineering journey with steam. You can tell that I carried out a little research on this Trevithick character, mainly by reading a paperback by Anthony Burton. I recommend it as a good read.
Anyway, how did I tackle the task in hand? Initially I thought I would push all my whizz-bang-wallop recording techniques and tools and come up with something monstrous, but on second thoughts decided to keep it simple.
The final version of the song simply uses an acoustic guitar, some vocals and my good-self playing the mouth trumpet. I’m a novice mouth trumpeter - I had to listen to a lot of Dizzy Gillespie to try and pick up some tricks. I called the song ‘For the love of steam’.
For the Love of Steam (an ode to Richard Trevithick)
G - A# maj7b5 – G - E - D - A
E
Six generations ago
When the world it ran slow
When feelings were deep
Yet the coal could be found shallow
B m C m
Only now do I appreciate your legacy
And notice that all the sleepers parade in single file for thee
C A E
From the Cornwall mines to the tram-lines
Of the Glamorganshire canal
In the shadows of your footsteps
You have many that follow you
Now I do too
B m E
You are the first that we know of,
Your tall chimney improved the air-circulation of,
The five ton engine beneath,
The first steam train locomotive.
[Guitar solo - click clack]
C A E
Oh, for the love of steam
He spent a life fulfilling his dream
To create the perfect steam machine
Oh, for the love of steam
In high-pressure century nineteen
A# m AM E
Only now do I appreciate your legacy
And notice that all the sleepers parade in single file for thee
All for the love of steam
All for the love of steam
[Mouth Trumpet solo]
All for the love of steam
[Mouth Trumpet solo]
G - A# maj7b5 – G - E - D - A E Six generations ago When the world it ran slow When feelings were deep Yet the coal could be found shallow B m C m Only now do I appreciate your legacy And notice that all the sleepers parade in single file for thee C A E From the Cornwall mines to the tram-lines Of the Glamorganshire canal In the shadows of your footsteps You have many that follow you Now I do too B m E You are the first that we know of, Your tall chimney improved the air-circulation of, The five ton engine beneath, The first steam train locomotive. [Guitar solo - click clack] C A E Oh, for the love of steam He spent a life fulfilling his dream To create the perfect steam machine Oh, for the love of steam In high-pressure century nineteen A# m AM E Only now do I appreciate your legacy And notice that all the sleepers parade in single file for thee All for the love of steam All for the love of steam [Mouth Trumpet solo] All for the love of steam [Mouth Trumpet solo]
Inspiration
Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive
On 21 February 1804, the world's first ever railway journey ran 9 miles from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal, South Wales.
It was to be several years before steam locomotion became commercially viable, meaning Richard Trevithick and not George Stephenson was the real father of the railways.
In 1803, Samuel Homfray brought Richard Trevithick to his Penydarren ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. Homfray was interested in the high pressure engines that the Cornishman had developed and installed in his road engines. He encouraged Trevithick to look into the possibility of converting such an engine into a rail-mounted locomotive to travel over the newly laid tramroad from Penydarren to the canal wharf at Abercynon.
It would appear that Trevithick started work on the locomotive in the autumn of 1803 and, by February 1804, it was completed. Tradition has it that Richard Crawshay, owner of the nearby Cyfarthfa ironworks, was highly sceptical about the new engine, and he and Homfray placed a wager of 500 guineas each with Richard Hill (of the Plymouth ironworks) as to whether or not the engine could haul ten tons of iron to Abercynon, and haul the empty wagons back.
The first run was on 21 February. Unfortunately, on the return journey a bolt sheared, causing the boiler to leak. The fire then had to be dropped and the engine did not get back to Penydarren until the following day. This gave Crawshay reason to claim that the run had not been completed as stipulated in the wager, but it is not known if this was ever settled!
The engine was, in fact, too heavy for the rails. Later, it would serve as a stationary engine driving a forge hammer at the Penydarren works.
The replica locomotive on display in the National Waterfront Museum today was built working from Trevithick's original documents and plans (now in the National Museum of Science and Industry). It was inaugurated in 1981 and, ironically, presented the exact same problem as the original engine – it too broke the rails on which it ran!
We cannot underestimate the importance of Trevithick's locomotive. In 1800, the fastest a man could travel over land was at a gallop on horseback; a century later, much of the world had an extensive railway system on which trains regularly travelled at speeds of up to sixty miles per hour.
This remarkable transformation, a momentous occasion in world history, was initiated in south Wales in that February of 1804.
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