Gone Dead Train

"Gone Dead Train" was written by Russ Titelman and Jack Nitzsche. The first recording was Randy Newman's, the opening track of the soundtrack to the 1970 film Performance (Warner Bros., September 19, 1970, produced by Nitzsche), running 2:56. Crazy Horse's version opens their 1971 album and runs 4:06. It was recorded in 1970, with the exact date and studio not itemized by track.

Toppermost reads the lyric as a blues using a vehicle metaphor for sexual failure, says the Crazy Horse version slows the tempo and adds a guitar riff imitating train wheels, and compares the soul, country and R&B mix to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Sources disagree on tempo (another summary calls it faster-paced than Newman's), so no comparison is made here. Christgau's review of the album singled out Nitzsche's song as a standout. The Wikipedia article on the album says Nazareth covered it on Expect No Mercy (1977), but that is not confirmed elsewhere. No statement from the band about the song, and no live or chart history, was found.