The person most responsible for spreading the popularity of "The Midnight Special" was doubtless Huddie Leadbetter. The first commercial recording of "The Midnight Special" was made in 1926, by Dave Cutrell, with McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band for the OKeh label. In McKay's version, Sheriff Binford became T.
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Gordon himself printed a fragment of the song in one of a series of columns on folksongs that he published in the New York times in 1927. Except for a few adjustments in the use of dialect, and the change of Judge Robinson's name to Judge Nelson, this song is identical with one of the two that Sandburg printed )p.217). Another of Gordon's correspondents, Terril McKay, sent Gordon a song he called simple "Jail Song" that he had heard several years earlier, in the fall of 1923, in the Harris County Jail in Houston. Gordon's immense manuscript collection of folksongs, gathered during the several years' correspondence with readers in his column.
A frequent source of Sandburg's material was Robert W. Carl Sandburg published two variants in his 1927 anthology American Songbag, both without attribution. Dated August 3, 1923, the letter requested additional verses of the song, and gave one verse ("If you go to the city, you better go right. Gordon, then conducting the column "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" in Adventure magazine. The earliest reference to the song I have found was in a letter to Robert W. That some elements of "The Midnight Special" are far older than the song as a whole is attested by verses Howard W. The strongest evidence for this assumption is that the song appeared widely throughout the South within a very few years after 1923, and invariably in versions that did not mention any of the individuals associated with the Houston events of 1923. It seems more probable that Leadbelly and others set the details of that event into the framework of an earlier, well-established traditional song. McCormick's researches do not prove that the "The Midnight Special" originated at the time of this 1923 jailbreak. Four other Houston law officers of that time were memorialized in one of Leadbelly's stanzas. Smith was captured a few hours later by Houston sheriff T.A. (3) Jack Smith, a bank robber sentenced to twenty-five years' hard labor, broke out of the Houston county jail while waiting for the transfer man, Uncle Bud Russell, who was due to arrive shortly to take him to the state penitentiary. (2) In an engrossing examination titled "A Who's Who of "The Midnight Special,'" Texas folklorist Mack McCormick traced the individuals named in some versions of the song (especially Leadbelly's) to a 1923 incident.
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(1) Thirty miles out of Houston, the Midnight Special shone its light through the barred windows at the Texas state prison farm at Sugarland, reminding the inmates of the light and freedom on the other side of the prison walls. The Lomaxes wrote that the Midnight Special was the Golden Gate Limited, departing from Houston's Southern Pacific depot at midnight for San Antonio, El Paso, and points west. The Midnight Special (Pistol Pete's Midnight Special)ĭuring the 1950's folksong revival, a favorite at hootenannies and concerts was this Texas prisoner's song. Great reasearch by Gargoyle.įrom: LONG STEEL RAIL - The Railroad in American FolksongĬohen, Norm, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1981, pp 478-484. General CommentI found this on another site. The next thing you know, boy, oh, you're prison bound Or the sheriff will grab ya and the boys will bring you down You better not gamble, there, you better not fight, at all If you're ever in Houston, well, you better do the right
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She come to see the governor, she want to free her man Umbrella on her shoulder, piece of paper in her hand Yonder come miss Rosie, how in the world did you know?īy the way she wears her apron, and the clothes she wore Let the Midnight Special shine a ever lovin' light on me Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Well, you wake up in the mornin', you hear the work bell ringĪnd they march you to the table, you see the same old thingĪin't no food upon the table, and no pork up in the panīut you better not complain, boy, you get in trouble with the man
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