Mississippi John Hurt’s version of Casey Jones begin with a long intro and has a very bouncy rhythm. The song follows a very basic A A B B form where the last words of every two lines rhyme, giving the song a very simple and repeating beat. Although the Grateful Dead’s version of Casey Jones is vastly different from Mississippi John Hurt’s tune (they were created 42 years apart from each other), it also embraces this ability to tap your foot of bob our head.            
Mississippi John Hurt’s Casey Jones is sung with only one guitar and the singer’s voice. Despite the lack of fancy background music or the help of a band, the song produces a wonderful sound. The song tells a very plain story about an engineer named Casey Jones who was very brave and always told him firemen on his train to leave him alone and let him drive his train as he wished. The song then, however, goes on to say that Casey Jones died while on his train. This is explained by the phrase “He’s a noble engineer, man but he’s dead and gone”. This line announcing Casey Jones’ death does not contain any specific tunings of the pitch because, like most folk songs, no emotions are heard in the song. This part of the song is just like the rest of the song before it—sticking to the initial bobbing rhythm. It is as if the story of the engineer, although sad, is supposed to be one of happiness and joy. Mississippi John Hurt continues to sin the rest of the song about Casey Jones death as if saying that there is no need to feel remorse because life goes on and Casey Jones the brave engineer went out the way he was supposed to. The second to last verse ends with the phrase “trust the lives in the hands of God”. Mississippi John Hurt’s Casey Jones embraces the simple graces of life: will power, bravery, the peacefulness of death, and the abundance of life afterwards. It is a simple and beautiful song done in a true folk manner.
            The Grateful Dead’s song’s lyrics are completely different that the lyrics by Mississippi John Hurt. This version of the song follows an A A B’ A A C format and the lyrics portray Casey Jones in a completely different light than the other version. Rather than singing of Casey Jones: the brave train driver, this version of the song actually makes him out to be a reckless and careless driver by beginning the song with “Driving that train, high on cocaine”. The Grateful Dead song is also very catchy but rather than being bouncy and simple like the Mississippi John Hurt song, is more one to dance to and tap one’s foot along with.
            The last word of every verse is stressed making the transition into the next verse something new. The lyrics “This old engine makes it on time” at the beginning of the second verse is sung in a different pitch than any line before, as if stressing the fact that the crazy train driver Casey Jones was surprisingly able to make it to where he was supposed to be! The fourth verse begins vastly different from anything before. Rather than maintaining the same rhythm as the rest of the song, the instrumentals stop altogether and then make a clanging noise when singing the words “trouble ahead, lady in red” as if foreshadowing that Casey Jones’ death was soon ahead of him.
            Although the Mississippi John Hurt version of Casey Jones was a happy and lively song with a simple story, the Grateful Dead cover does a better job of telling the story to a curious everyday audience. Mississippi John Hurt embraces all the charms of a folk song in his version of Casey Jones but it is the Grateful Dead who truly help me envision Casey Jones and his train.