Train in Vain
by The Clash
- 122
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 77
- Danceability
- 10
- Acousticness
The Clash needed a song for an NME flexi disc that never happened. Mick Jones invited a visitor to Wessex Studios one Saturday afternoon to hear the finished London Calling, and found him laying down vocals in the booth for a new song. By Monday night "Train in Vain" was done. The flexi disc fell through. The spare track went on the album, but the sleeves had already gone to the printers.
That left it off the track listing as a hidden track, and the only song without lyrics printed on the insert. Its title was scratched into the run-off area of the fourth side of the vinyl. In the US and Canada it became "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)", and the title also avoided confusion with Ben E. King's 1961 song.
Jones wrote most of it. He said the track had a train rhythm and a feeling of being lost. Some read it as a reply to the Slits' "Typical Girls", and as about his relationship with Slits guitarist Viv Albertine. They separated around the time of the sessions. Albertine said he took the train to her place in Shepherd's Bush and she would not let him in. It was the third and final single from the album and the Clash's first Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2010 Rolling Stone ranked it number 298 on its list.
Train in Vain runs at 122 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.97 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 492 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.