(Or: on the intersection of Steampunk and historical pop music)
In Gibson and Stirling’s 1990 novel “The Difference Engine,” pretty much a seminal work in the “Steampunk” genre, a character in 1855 meets a ballad-seller on a London street, hawking copies of (among others) a religious ballad called “The Railway to Heaven.”
With the title, and some of the lyrics quoted, a little investigation reveals that this is, in fact, a real song, as one can see here.
Roud Number v15389, if I’m reading the listing right.
Another reference, from an 1858 books, seems to indicate this and similar ballads were…not exactly high art.
However, I was unable to see a reference in any work to the tune the song was meant to be sung to, original or not. I would personally presume—or at least guess—that this “song” was meant to be adaptable by the purchaser to any passable melody. Hey, when your music business predates personal recording technology, gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.
The problem is, I don’t have any idea idea what the most likely or appropriate tune you’d set an 1850s-era railway-themed English pop-folk religious hymn would be set to.
All I can personally say, with any confidence, is that it doesn’t seem to work well with “Stairway.”
So…would anyone else happen to have any insight or suggestions?