Midnight Train to Georgia

Pips Are the Dots On Dice

Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight & The Pips

Recommended by Kim C.

"I met Gladys Knight and her husband once at a Mormon temple. Very strange...But I was glad to meet the woman behind this song and the famous chicken and waffles."

Couldn't post this last night because my Internet wasn't working. Not sure if it was the apartment in my wi-fi or my computer.

Anyway, yeah Kim that's bizarre. But cool.

This is a great jam. It won the Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus way back in 1974. Then it was inducted into the Grammy hall of fame in 1999. It's history.

The track is actually kind of based on a true story!

Composer Jim Weatherly called his friend Lee Majors. He had been dating Farrah Fawcett...and she happened to answer his phone. She said Lee wasn't around and she was packing to take a midnight plane to go home to Houston (Songfacts).

Not exactly the story in the song - okay, not at all - but what can you do.

Quickly creating a descending bass line and writing the line I'd rather live in his world than live without him in mine, Weatherly composed the song (then Midnight Plane to Houston) in, like, an hour (WSJ).

As happens sometimes, Knight's signature song was not written for her. It was first recorded by Georgia native Cissy Houston a year earlier. That was when we traded Houston for Georgia and plane for train. It also switched from being a country song to having more of a rhythm and blues sound (WSJ).

That said, Knight's fingerprints are all over this thing, at least her version of it.

Aside from her voice, she changed changed lyrics (a life he's come to know --> we've come to know), and added some instruments to "create texture and spark something in me" (WSJ). Lots of horns.

Except for the ad libs. Knight says she's not much of an ad-libber. As she was recording the end, her brother was in an earpiece feeding her phrases to sing. "Gonna board, gotta board" or "my world, his world, our world" (WSJ).

And, obviously, it worked.

The other "true" story is that Knight's husband was working to be a saxophonist, but eventually divorced her because he couldn't handle their non-traditional marriage. They divorced in 1973, the year this song was released (WSJ).

"That's probably why it sounds so personal" (WSJ).

It also sounds amazing. I love those background vocals.

I'm leavin'
(I know you will)

I want background vocals in real life. They don't even have to sing. Just accent whatever I say.

I'll just play this song wherever I go. It'll be close enough.

Overview:

Genre:
Soul

Favorite Lyrics:
But he sure found out the hard way
that dreams don't always come true.

Verdict:
Groovy