Talk:Midnight Special (song)

Untitled
I Believe Pete Seeger originally recorded this song.--Jos Kolenberg 21:12, 3 July 2006 (UTC) Read the Wikipedia entry for this song, and you will find that he did not. Lonnie Donegan also recorded "Midnight Special" (available on LaserLight Digital/Delta Music Gmbh # 21040 (compilation 2001)). It's likely that this is how McCartney got acquainted with the song.

Has anyone else heard the story that the 'Midnight Special' was the electric chair in the prison? Executions were historically done at midnight and the electric chair was the 'salvation' as it was the only way to leave the terrible prison life.
 * it's an urban legend. The Special was a train. Pustelnik (talk)! —Preceding comment was added at 18:04, 12 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Except the Electric chair meaning makes sense in this song. Any reference to a train- even a train with a similar name- does not make any sense. MaiMai916 (talk) 21:46, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

I have heard that "Midnight Special" is also prison slang for a jailbreak. Is there any truth to that, or is that another urban legend?

one time, Matlock played the banjo and sang this song on his show. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.251.85.134 (talk) 01:42, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Really? I never saw that. They played it "live" on a very good episode of The Andy Griffith Show, using the lyric "...Deputy Fife will arrest you...".--208.127.100.19 (talk) 13:04, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

that's a damned dirty lie. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.180.30.134 (talk) 01:45, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Midnight Special is well-documented. It was written by Ledbelly when he was in the prison in Sugar Land. Jim Shortt, Music Columnist, the SCENE Magazine, Houston.

Sugar Land Prison
The article states the name comes from the local name for a Houston train passing by the Sugar Land Prison around midnight. Might be an urban legend. The problem being that the Sugar Land Prison was opened in April 1909 and the song predates that. Any ideas? SpaceFace32 (talk) 18:14, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
 * See relevant information at the url It states that lyrics to the song changed depending on when it was performed. It also states that the lines from 1905, which were documented by Odum, were only one part of the probable "well established traditional song" "with song elements being far older than the song itself". As I keep looking into the "early history" of music, I see this more and more. People changed things, borrowing from many sources to come up with their own version of a new/old song.Steve Pastor (talk) 20:01, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Nora
In the version I learnt from my father, the girl in the song was Miss-A-Rosie. Anyone know who may have first recorded a version with this name? Plutonium27 (talk) 12:48, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Miss-A-Rosie was named in the version I first heard by Lonnie Donegan. But I don't know who originated it. You must understand that this is a song full of mythology, and re-written by people who may have been legendary but not reliable. Valetude (talk) 23:43, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

Louis Dumaine influence
Although To-Wa-Bac-A-Wa came out in 1927, it sure looks like Louis Dumaine's jazz band, the "Jazzola Eight," was one of the first bands to show the influence of, or be a contributor to, the folksong known as the Midnight Special. An instrumental piece (without lyrics) is available on Volume 1 of the music CD series "Jazz the World Forgot," issued by Yazoo, a division of Shanachie Entertainment Corp. From the title, I will assume that To-Wa-Bac-A-Wa is a song that was sung by tobacco harvesters. Sure sounds like the Midnight Special to me. 198.177.27.29 (talk) 22:36, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

LemonJello
This is pretty influential in "Cool Hand Luke"

In the scene where he is digging and undigging the bosses ditch, the song (the orignial song) is played by one of the other inmates in the background. The use of music, throughout the movie, is extremely well done. Mainly in Luke's singing of the traditional folk song "Plastic Jesus" after learning of the death of his mother. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.70.158.128 (talk) 20:57, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Folk it may be, traditional it isn’t; “Plastic Jesus” was written by Ed Rush and George Cromarty in 1957… Jock123 (talk) 13:55, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Bob Dylan
"As WITH most Dylan albums before Together Through Life, Dylan has adapted lyrics from other songs and incorporated them into his own lyrics. The phrase "If you ever go to Houston, you better walk right" is taken from the folk song " Midnight Special". Dylan plays harmonica on Harry Belefonte's 1962 recording of the song". I heavily disagree with this statement - saying that as with most Dylan albums he has adapted lyrics from other songs, is plain wrong in my opinion. Ummagumma23 (talk) 12:32, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

The Meaning of the Light
It has been a long time since I read the Lomax's book, but I believe that I read there that the prisoners in Sugar Land had a folk belief that if the light of the Midnight Special shone on them in their cells at night, they would be pardoned or bailed out of prison.Daniel Sparkman (talk) 18:25, 16 February 2010 (UTC)


 * See (better: listen) to Paul McCartney in here. --Slartibartfass (talk) 22:29, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Link to Macca dead. Get back to work on those fjords.--2001:44B8:3102:BB00:E0E7:66EC:B07B:E3EE (talk) 09:45, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

The Significance of the Light
It has been a long time since I read the Lomax's book, but I believe that I read there that the prisoners in Sugar Land had a folk belief that if the light of the Midnight Special shone on them in their cells at night, they would be pardoned or bailed out of prison.Daniel Sparkman (talk) 18:26, 16 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Without knowing this detail, the whole song would be senseless. --Slartibartfass (talk) 22:37, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Introductory paragraph
If the experts are in agreement that this song is about a train — and after 30 or 40 years of listening to the CCR version, this is the first time I've ever heard that explanation — then could the opening paragraph just break the suspense and come out and say the song is about a train?

Thanks, Varlaam (talk) 22:27, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Your text should include a basic book on the subject of Leadbelly, namely a novelized version of his life by Edmund Addeo and Richard Garvin. The title is The Midnight Special. It's available at Amazon and also on the major tablets, such as Smashworks. This book and its author were recently reviewed in Puyblishers' Weekly.

--Robert E. Burger — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.107.89.171 (talk) 00:47, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Similarity to 'Hippy Ti Yo'
The song 'Hip et Taiut', variously known as 'Hippy Ti Yo' and a load of other names such as Ils la volet non trancas (he has stolen my sled) even on a cursory listening, appears to be the source of the tune for Midnight Special. The tune Hippy Ti Yo has a long and checquered history in cajun Music - see here for a brief account.

Unfortunately the claim that this is the origin of the tune for Midnioght Special needs a source, & I can't find one anywhere. I sha keep searching, though.

--86.133.77.18 (talk) 20:00, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Contrasting statements
Seanislavski (talk) 13:27, 30 October 2015 (UTC) The link 'Midnight Special (train)' goes to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Midnight_Special_(train) which clearly states "This Midnight Special is not the same train as in the famous Lead Belly song "Midnight Special."

In Popular Culture
Moving this section to talk page as it had been removed as having no sources. There is a lot of pertinent information here that might have sources found, and impacts discussed, no need to throw it out completely.


 * On The Andy Griffith Show episode "The Guitar Player Returns" (1961), Sheriff Taylor performs a duet of the song with Mayberry guitarist Jim Lindsay (James Best).
 * Johnny Rivers' A newly recorded version was used as the theme song for the 1972-1981 NBC music-variety series of the same name, The Midnight Special.
 * The song was sung by Harry Dean Stanton in Cool Hand Luke (1967).
 * Creedence Clearwater Revival's version was featured in the film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) as a motif during the prologue and epilogue.
 * Matlock (TV series), episode "The Blues Singer" (1989), Andy Griffith performs the song with members of "The Bluesmen," which included Brownie McGhee, Joe Seneca and Ray Templin in the closing scene.
 * Excerpts of the song are performed as a duet, and solo, by characters in the Australian soap Prisoner. The women of Wentworth prison join forces with the male prisoners at Woodridge with the intention of putting on a concert to raise funds for various charitable causes. The characters Lou Reynolds (Kevin Summers) and Margo Gaffney (Jane Clifton) are seen rehearsing the song in several episodes.
 * The song (the basic tune, with special lyrics) is used twice in the 1946 Disney feature film Song of the South, as the plantation workers walk back and forth from the fields.
 * An excerpt from the song is included in the beginning of a chapter from the novel American Gods.

Poltair (talk) 06:32, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Original research
Just removed a whole paragraph of unreferenced Original Research which has been in the article for about 14 1/2 years! The only edit ever by an numbered editor! Tapered (talk) 03:10, 30 September 2021 (UTC)