That Long Train Ride
That Long Train Ride is a fan-made remix created by Andrew "DJ Dain" Bowers of a Half-Life 2 track. It is an expansion of the song Triage at Dawn; it also briefly uses an excerpt from the sound file radio1.mp3.
Overview[edit]
The song was first posted on the OverClocked ReMix forums, a site dedicated to video game music, on February 19, 2005[4] where it received negative feedback. After some changes,[4] Bowers decided to upload it to VGMix.com which he believes "had a much more egalitarian reviewing system" and therefore "ended up contributing most of [his] time and effort".[3] As he hadn't seen the title of the original Half-Life 2 track (Triage at Dawn) while browsing the game files, he created a new one: That Long Train Ride.[3]
Bowers went on to produce other remixes to post on VGMix until the February of 2006 when the site was closed. That Long Train Ride and most of his other video game remixes wouldn't see the light of day again until he started his own blog in 2008 to promote his mash-ups. However, during the intervening years prior to his blog's launch, the song became a hit with the Half-Life 2 community.[3]
- "Every couple of months I would receive the odd letter asking if I was the guy being the remix and where they could download the track. One gentlemen even requested the piano parts so that he could learn and transcribe them to sheet music. I even stumbled upon several fan forums with whole threads dedicated to discussing and celebrating this remix. One of the most surprising developments came with a message from a fan who said I had been mentioned in the UK edition of PC Gamer Magazine. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. The download link they provided may have been broken, but my name and work was published in a magazine! I had never anticipated this remix to generate this much interest."
- —Andrew Bowers[src]
There has been a considerable amount of confusion throughout the fan community regarding the origins of the track, many initially arguing that it was part of the early versions of Half-Life 2. Its name was also unclear, thought at times to be titled "Path of/to (the) Borealis".[3] In 2007, a Half-Life 2 leak files pack which included That Long Train Ride and other non Half-Life-related songs was released which led to speculation within the community that these tracks were made by Valve. In 2010, a user on the Facepunch forums admitted that he was responsible for this misleading soundtrack compilation.[5]
As of July 2022, the song has reached more than 5,000,000 plays and over 70,000 thumbs-ups over many videos on YouTube, the most popular one, uploaded on July 12, 2008, having about 6,700,000 views.[6]
References[edit]
- ↑ VGMix.com - Releases (archived)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 That Long Train Ride on SoundCloud (archived)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Why yes, I am that Half-Life 2 Remix guy on Giant Bomb
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Half-Life 2 That Long Train Ride on OverClocked ReMix
- ↑ The REAL story behind the Alpha soundtrack on Facepunch (archived)
- ↑
Half-Life 2 - Triage at Dawn |Remix| Path of Borealis on YouTube
