Slow Train" is a song by British duo Flanders and Swann, written in July 1963. [1] It laments the closure of railway stations and lines brought about by the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, and also the passing of a way of life. [2] Lyrics [ edit ] Midsomer Norton, a typical country station, whose closure was lamented by the song "Slow Train". The song features idealised scenes such as milk churns on a railway platform. "On the mainline and the goods siding the grass grows high": the Beeching cuts closed many rural lines, such as the Dunstable Branch Lines serving Dunstable Town. Built-up Area"—a prehistoric inhabitant of Salisbury Plain complains about a new development: Stonehenge. Williams, Michael (3 April 2010). "So much pain in our love of the train". The Independent. London . Retrieved 6 July 2021.

Tried by the Centre Court"—a Wimbledon match between Miss L. Hammerfest and Miss Joan Hunter-Dunn, as told by an exasperated umpire. "They are bashing a ball with the gut of a cat". The Gasman Cometh"—a verse-and-chorus song in which a householder finds that no tradesman ever completes a job without creating another, related job for another tradesman. The melody quotes from " Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron". [7] The title may have been inspired by that of The Iceman Cometh (1946).Design for Living"—about contemporary furnishings of houses and gardens. "One day we're taking Liberty's in, the next we're down at Heal's". In December 1956, Flanders and Swann hired the New Lindsey Theatre, Notting Hill, to perform their two-man revue At the Drop of a Hat, which opened on New Year's Eve. [3] Flanders sang a selection of the songs that they had written, interspersed with comic monologues, accompanied by Swann on the piano. An unusual feature of their act was that both men remained seated for their shows: Swann behind his piano and Flanders in a wheelchair (having contracted poliomyelitis in 1943). [3] The show was successful and transferred the next month to the Fortune Theatre, where it ran for over two years, before touring in the UK, the United States, Canada and Switzerland. [3] Ian Wallace: Bass baritone celebrated for his 'buffo' roles – and for his rendition of 'The Hippopotamus Song'", The Independent, 15 October 2009, accessed 26 December 2019 Los Olividados— a satire on bullfighting, about "the almost unbearable drama of a corrida d'olivas, or festival of olive-stuffing". "A cruel sport: some may think it so. But this is surely more than a sport, this is more than a vital artform. What we have experienced here today is total catharsis, in the acting out of that primeval drama, of man pitted against the olive." The title is a reference to Los Olvidados, or The Forgotten Ones, a 1950 movie by the director Luis Buñuel. English folk singer-songwriter Frank Turner included a version of the song on his 2011 compilation album The Second Three Years.

Twosome: Kang & Jag" (Kangaroo and Jaguar)—two more animal songs sung as a pair. The title recalls two operas " Cav and Pag" (i.e. Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci) which are often performed together. a b Williams, Michael (2011). On the Slow Train: Twelve Great British Railway Journeys. Random House. p.1. ISBN 9781848092082 . Retrieved 5 June 2018. Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1sted.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p.421. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.Slow Train"—an elegiac song about the railway stations on lines scheduled for closure by the Beeching Axe in 1963. a b c d e f g Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Conciseed.). Virgin Books. p.470. ISBN 1-85227-745-9. The Only Flanders & Swann Video (recorded New York, 19 April 1967, 10 days after the close of At The Drop of Another Hat) A Transport of Delight"—with an increasing refrain about the "Big six-wheeler, scarlet-painted, London Transport, diesel-engined, ninety-seven–horse-power omnibus". (The bus was probably the AEC LT-type, which served London from 1929 until the 1950s, and had six wheels instead of the more normal four. [13])