Since I chose “ThirdRail Productions” for the name of my business back in the year 2000, I’ve had a number of people ask what the name is about. Typically the query includes a rather quizzical look…so, here’s the story as best I can tell it.

For a long while, I’ve heard the phrase “third rail” applied in any number of different contexts.

The original use of the term refers to a method of providing electricity to power rail transit systems. There are all kinds of urban legends about people (usually some hapless indigent or foreigner) dying of electrocution by urinating on the third rail of a subway…but the only real risk of electrocution is actually physically touching it while grounded.

According to Wikipedia, “the phrase third rail is a metaphor in politics to denote an idea or topic that is so “charged” and “untouchable” that any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject would invariably suffer politically.”*

Anyways.

The point is that I thought about how powerful music is, and how much influence it’s had in my life. I then thought about the misuse of power that seems so rampant in our culture. Power can be used for good as well as bad, so I thought about making music that used its inherent creative/mystical power for good.

That’s where the name came from…the desire to position my company to use creative power for good ends.

It appears that others have had similar thoughts. When I bought my first domain names in 2000, there were no other “Third Rail” anythings out there. I used all the search engines that were available at the time, cuz I wanted to be sure. Now they appear to be multiplying like crazy.

*Here’s a link to the whole Wiki on Third Rail as metaphor.