From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Midnight Special" is a traditional folk song in the prison-blues style. It was originally popularized by Leadbelly and was based on a legend at the prison in Sugar Land, Texas in which Leadbelly was incarcerated. The song has been covered by many different artists.

"Midnight Special" is historically performed in the country-blues style. It is performed in first person and is a tale of how the songwriter is imprisoned. The song is described in Best Loved American Folk Songs by John and Alan Lomax 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."

The train in the song was a real train, the Southern Pacific's Golden Gate Limited. It pulled out of the Southern Pacific depot at Houston, Texas at midnight sharp heading for San Antonio, El Paso and eventually California. It ran right past the Texas State Prison Farm at Sugar Land (called the Central Unit), just outside Houston.

Prisoners lying awake could easily hear the sound of that train rumbling through the darkness. And if the "ever-lovin’ light" from the headlamp shone through the barred windows and landed on a convict, legend says that man would soon go free. "The Midnight Special" was first introduced to northern audiences in the mid 1930s by the great folk singer and folk song composer Lead Belly, who had done time at Sugar Land.^[1] Lead Belly 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, NYC, June 15, 1940). The earliest known recording of the song, however, is by the bluesman Sam Collins.

The country blues artist Bill Cox also did a song called "Midnight Special" which was essentially the same song as Cliff Carlisle's train-riding "Hobo Blues" with the chorus line from "Midnight Special" inserted into it. In Bill Cox's version, the light of the train represents the ability to flee from his situation of unemployment and destitution.

The song, as popularized by Leadbelly, has many parallel lines to other prison songs. It is essentially the same song as "De Funiac Blues," sung and played by Burruss Johnson and recorded by John Lomax at the Raiford State Penitentiary in Florida on 6/2/39. Many of the lines appear in prison worksongs such as "Jumpin Judy," "Ain't That Berta," "Oh Berta" and "Yon' Comes de Sargent." These songs, including "Midnight Special." are composite. They mix standard prison song verses indiscriminately. Many of these component pieces have become canonized in the blues idiom and appear in mutated forms regularly in blues lyrics.

Johnny Rivers, Paul Evans and Creedence Clearwater Revival are well-known for their versions. Also artists such as ABBA, Mungo Jerry, Van Morrison, Odetta, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Little Richard, Buckwheat Zydeco, Mischief Brew, Josh White, Pete Seeger, Spencer Davis Group, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney have covered the song. It was also translated into Dutch and was a major chart success for Drukwerk as Schijn 'n Lichtje op mij (Shine a light on me). It was once parodied by Ray Stevens and it was called "Moonlight Special".

Lonnie Donegan