the song was written by junior parker and sam phillips in 1953. parker used the name little junior’s blue flames when his recording was released. parker gives the song a feel of rhythm and blues using a saxophone that givesthe recording a sound like a train rolling down the track. the song tells a story about a man who lost his woman to the mystery train, then he gets on board trying to find her. it’s the last record released by elvis on sun, and possibility his best. it’s a pure rocker that just keeps on rockin. the ghostly sound of elvis’ voice moaning and crying the words of the song and scotty’s ghost like guitar playing gives you an eerie feeling the whole band is chasing a runaway train down a lonesome track, on a foggy night, somewhere in the mountains of west virginia. elvis keeps repeating the words the train i ride sixteen coaches long; the train i ride sixteen coaches long; well that long black train; took my baby and gone. elvis and junior parker are singing the same lines, but elvis is rocking his train and junior parker has a r&b feel to his recording, putting the two artist on different trains and different tracks. elvis had to make this recording his own. parker had it out first, and took it as far as he could take it in any direction. elvis takes over and takes control of the train. elvis gets the throttle in his hands and plans to get his woman back, no matter what it takes. elvis lets everyone know in his best sun rockin style that the train has taken his baby, but it never will again. elvis has taken the song and made it his own riding the train into the night laughing as he goes whoooooooo! h i! knowing he has his baby back. elvis didn’t know it at the time, but his laugh and whoooooooo! h i! at the end of the record would make rockin history. mystery train was recorded on july 11, 1955, at sun studios in memphis. scotty moore on electric guitar. bill black on standup base. elvis on acoustic guitar. the first song recorded was i forgot to remember to forget. it was written by stan kesler and charlie feathers. elvis didn’t want to record it, but sam insisted adding johnny bernero playing drums. when johnny got the beat to where elvis wanted it, elvis gave in and recorded the song. it was the first time elvis had added drums to one of his sun recordings, also that day, he re-recorded trying to get to you. elvis had been wanting to get the recording of trying to get to you to his liking, but hadn’t been able to do it. this time they added johnny bernero on drums and he got the song the way he wanted it. seventy-eight rpm records were the standard in 1955, even though a certain amount 45′s were being released, but 78′s out sold 45′s by a wide margin. it was also in this time frame that tom parker began to take more control over the management of elvis even though bob neal was elvis’ full time manager. you could say that in 1955, the mystery train was rolling more and more in the direction of tom parker. tom parker also began to push sam phillips to sell elvis’ contract to a major record company. the company he had in mind was rca due to the fact that he and steve sholes who was manager of the a&r department were friends. sam phillips may not have wanted to let elvis go, but sam was strapped for cash. the cash flow to get records pressed and distributed was putting the little record company in a bind and sam owed elvis for back royalties. sam needed money for his new radio station wher, which was to be located in the lobby of the new holiday inn hotel in downtown memphis. the mystery train had tom parker trying to get elvis to rca and sam phillips was trying to remember to forget he needed cash flow. these were the circumstances in 1955, that led to the mystery of how the legend of elvis presley began. it was created in a mysterious way and grew to be bigger than life. many years later elvis would try to ride the mystery train back to where it all started, but he could never get off the ill fated train nor his destiny in life. so, he rode the mystery train till he died. what his life might have been had elvis not forgotten to remember reality will never be known. it’s been said that he has left the building, maybe so, but he still rides the mystery train forever. a reporter at a small time newspaper had just discovered that a legend that they all knew about was not true at all. he asked the editor of the newspaper, should i write the true story or print the legend? the editor replied, print the legend!

~ Widmarc Clark