I am writing liner notes for a CD of railroad-themed material. Being a longtime railfan, I am familiar with the subject matter, but am curious about the song “Midnight Special”…
Leadbelly 's recording refers to “Houston” and the penitentary. (Other recordings refer to “Sugar Land”).
Of course the Alton Road operated a “Midnight Special,” but it ran nowhere near Houston!
Has anyone ever heard of a “Midnight Special” passenger train serving the Houston area? (Or freight? It’s possible the singer was thinking about riding the rods). M-K-T? GC&SF? T&NO? HE&WT? Other lines through Houston
There’s a reference to such a nickname in Archie Robertson’s book, “Slow Train to Yesterday” published in the 1940s and still available on occasion at train meets or used book dealers. He said the term referred to a special train operated to the prison farm at Parchman, MS, on the fifth Sunday of any month which had 5 Sundays; the purpose was to allow conjugal visits, notably for black convicts. He noted that 'there is a brutal lack of privacy, and all within a common enclosure. When it is over, the women go back to their ‘Midnight Special’. He noted the name might be applied to other trains, but perhaps this is the origin of the prison theme you cite.
James E. Bradley Hawk Mountain Chapter N.R.H.S.
THANK YOU!!!
Leadbelly sang quite a bit in East Texas, so it would have made sense for him to shift the song’s setting to “Houston.”
Much obliged,
S.F.M.
And if you’re from Chicago, you know that Leadbelly’s song has been the theme song of radio station WFMT’s Saturday evening program of “madness and escape” for decades. [:)] But until now, I hadn’t a clue as to what that part of the song was about. [bow]
The “Midnight Special” on WFMT was the name of the program. They did play “folk tunes and other stuff” instead of the usual classical music on the station. I doubt if the program had anything to do with trains.
WSM in Nashville put their big tower in Nashville(Brentwood) near the L&N mainline & used to broadcast the passing of the train. They may have a copy of a recording somewhere in their archives, to be used on the air if the train was late.
Most train songs pit the train in places the real one could never go. Can’t mess up a good lyric with reality!
I wonder if other roads also had a “Midnight Special” on their overnite run with heavyweight Pullman sleepers between cities?
I’m not from Chicago, but changed trains there several times on transcontinental journeys. I do remember picking up a timetable (probably GM&O) in Chicago one time and seeing the “Midnight Special” listed. Man, do I wish I had kept that timetable!!!
I agree that railroad songs frequently put the rail lines and name trains into impossible situations…like Jay McShann’s “Roll On, Katy” ( “roll on down to Memphis Town”).
The CD I wrote notes for was one I made last month with pianist/vocalist Carl Sonny Leyland and his trio. The all-railroad program includes Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special” and “Rock Island Line” plus compositions by W.C. Handy, Meade Lux Lewis, Little Brother Montgomery, Clarence Lofton, Jimmie Rodgers, Cow Cow Davenport and others. In addition, there are several originals by Sonny.
To the gentleman who inquired if there were other Midnight Specials besides the Alton/GM&O one, there were a number of them:
Alton - Chicago-Kansas City - around 1904.
IC - Chicago-St. Louis - also around 1904
Central RR of NJ/Reading - New York - Atlantic City.
Monon/Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton - Chicago-Cincinnati - around 1921.
NYC - Cleveand and Cincinnati
PRR - Chicago and Louisville - around 1913.
Amtrak - Washington-Philadelphia - April 1994 timetable change.
Monon - Chicago-Indianpolis - spelled Mid-Night Special.
This is the first time I ever heard of the fifth Sunday connection with conjugal visits at Parchman. The interesting thing about Parchman conjugal visits was that the convict did not have to be married to the woman that visited, anyone he could convince to come in was fine with the prison administration.
“Here I am on Parchman Farm, ain’t never done no man no harm,
Gonna be here for the rest of my life, all I done was shoot my wife.”