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I Believe Pete Seeger originally recorded this song.--Jos Kolenberg21:12, 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.