Been on a Train
Track four of Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, used by Alvin Ailey in his solo "Cry".
Laura Nyro, from Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (1970)
"Been on a Train" is track four of the album, 5:49, and the B-side of the January 1971 single "When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag". Wikipedia describes the narrator as watching a lover die of an overdose; no comment from Nyro on the song was found. Alvin Ailey used it as the second movement of his solo "Cry", made for Judith Jamison and premiered at New York City Center in 1971, with other music by Alice Coltrane and the Voices of East Harlem; the Ailey page describes the piece moving from bitter sorrow to ecstatic joy. Setlist.fm lists it only twice. No chart history, video or covers were found.
More songs by Laura Nyro
Sources
- Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, Wikipedia
- Cry, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater