Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Desperados Waiting For A Train - Kulkukoirat


Let's have another offering from Topi Sorsakoski and Reijo Taipale - the title track of the album "Kulkukoirat". It was also released as a single in 1992. And still today Topi Sorsakoski is doing gigs with his band called - Kulkukoirat. The original tune was called "Desperados Waiting For a Train". It was performed by Jerry Jeff Walker (b. Ronald Clyde Crosby), who spent his early folk music days in Greenwich Village in the mid-60s. He then recorded the famous album "Mr. Bojangles" in 1968 and settled in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s associating mainly with the country-rock outlaw scene. "Desperados" is a track on his 1973 album "Viva Terlingua", and it is written by Guy Clark, a prolific country artist himself. The version here, however, might be the single version.

Here's the pair:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favourite cover of this song is by a 70's group Mallard (ex-Captain Beefheart backing band). Can be found in Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/track/2bB6AGivKpurC359Pwi6Lm

Hound said...

Guy Clark's version is the on closest
to truth, because the it is about his grandmother's boyfriend.

When Taipale and Sorsakoski recorded
this The Highwaymen's version was on the Finnish charts so it is quite surely the inspiration for their cover.

DM said...

Yes, I agree that The Highwaymen's version was the one that Topi and Reiska covered. But I try always to present the original, if possible. It sometimes is hard to spot the original version, however.