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Songs Start‑class

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United States: Texas Unassessed

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Roots music Start‑class High‑importance

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I Believe Pete Seeger originally recorded this song.--Jos Kolenberg 21:12, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Read the Misplaced Pages 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)

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) 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)

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.

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