SONG OF THE DAY

“Midnight Special” by Paul Evans ( [single], Guaranteed Records, 1960).

MY TAKE

A young Harry Dean Stanton sings this on guitar during a scene in Cool Hand Luke, which I recently plugged away at. Nice plot, but not my pace for a movie. Of course, this song is also featured on one of my favorite possessions of all time, my beloved Love, Peace & Folk Rock Hits Of The 60’s & 70’s, a three-disc compilation which I bought for dirt cheap in 1998 featuring all original recordings (no terrible house band called Hits Makers). Love this song. One of my all-time favs.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– “Midnight Special” is a traditional folk song thought to have originated among prisoners in the American South.

– The title comes from the refrain which refers to the Midnight Special and its “ever-loving light” (sometimes “ever-living light”).

– The song is historically performed in the country-blues style from the viewpoint of the prisoner. The song has been covered by many different artists.

– Lyrics appearing in the song were first recorded in print by Howard Odum in 1905.

– The first printed reference to the song itself was in a 1923 issue of Adventure magazine, a three-times-a-month pulp magazine published by the Ridgway Company.

– In 1927 Carl Sandburg published two different versions of “Midnight Special” in his The American Songbag, the first published versions.

– The song was first commercially recorded on the OKeh label in 1926 as “Pistol Pete’s Midnight Special” by Dave “Pistol Pete” Cutrell (a member of McGinty’s Oklahoma Cow Boy Band).

– In 1934 Huddie William “Lead Belly” Ledbetter recorded a version of the song at Angola Prison for John and Alan Lomax, who mistakenly attributed it to him as the author. However, Ledbetter, instead, for his Angola session, appears to have inserted several stanzas relating to a 1923 Houston jailbreak into the traditional song.

– Ledbetter recorded at least three versions of the song, one with the Golden Gate Quartet, a slick gospel group (recorded for RCA at Victor Studio #2, New York City, June 15, 1940).

– John and Alan Lomax, in their book, Best Loved American Folk Songs, told a credulous story identifying the Midnight Special as a train from Houston shining its light into a cell in the Sugar Land Prison. p. 71: “Sung in prisons all over the South, this song is probably of white origin.”

– They also describe Ledbetter’s version as “the Negro jailbird’s ballad to match Hard Times Poor Boy. Like so many American folk songs, its hero is not a man but a train.” The light of the train is seen as the light of salvation, the train which could take them away from the prison walls. It is highly reminiscent of the imagery of such gospel songs as Let the Light from your Lighthouse Shine on Me.

– Carl Sandburg had a different view. He believed the subject of the song would rather be run over by a train than spend more time in jail.

– ABBA, The Beatles, Burl Ives, Mischief Brew, Johnny Rivers, Big Joe Turner, Cisco Houston, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Mungo Jerry, Van Morrison, Odetta, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, The Backyard Blues Boys, Little Richard, Leadbelly, Buckwheat Zydeco, Pete Seeger, Otis Rush, The Kingston Trio, The Spencer Davis Group, Lonnie Donegan, Eric Clapton, Harry Belafonte, Big Bill Broonzy, Ursa Major and Paul McCartney, among others, have recorded the song.

– Belafonte’s 1962 version is notable for containing the very first official recording of Bob Dylan, who played harmonica.

– Bob Dylan references a line from the song – “shine your light on me” – on the second track, “Precious Angel”, of his late ’70s gospel album Slow Train Coming.

– The Creedence Clearwater Revival version was featured heavily in the film Twilight Zone: The Movie.

– The song was also featured in part in the film Cool Hand Luke.

– Cohen, Norm. Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong. University of Illinois Press (2nd ed), 2000. ISBN 0252068815

– Oliver, Paul. Songsters and Saints: Vocal Tradition on Race Records. Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0521269423

– Lomax, John A. and Alan Lomax. American Ballads and Folk Songs. Dover Publications (reprint), 1994. ISBN 0486282767

– Russell, Tony. Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942. Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0195139895

Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle. “The Midnight Special”. The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. Hosted by California State University, Fresno, Folklore, 2007.

VIDEO OF THE DAY