Midnight Special
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Various Artists
This is one of our typical easy guitar songs. It's suitable for intermediates and for beginners who can change chords with relative ease. You’ll see from the Performance that in addition to the totally useful Strum Pattern that Steve demonstrates, you’ll also have a chance to learn a very cool lead line. The chords are easy so you can focus on internalizing the groove and nailing the lead. You’ll also learn how to play a nice little boogie-woogie riff that requires nothing more than a simple left hand movement on top of your Strum Pattern. It may sound hard, but it’s easy when you know how. To see all of our easy guitar songs and technique lessons, click HERE.
Runtime: Teacher: Steve
Lesson Description
This guitar lesson has 7 chapters. The Performance shows you what we want to have you learn in the lesson. The Overview tells you what you need to know to speak intelligently about the song at parties, plus the chords you need to know. In the Intro Steve shows you the “tremolo” that he plays at the beginning of the piece. This is great pick-control practice and a useful technique for this and other songs. In the Chorus we get into the main Strum Pattern, a classic backbeat groove, that you need to learn how to play if you’re planning on pleasing yourself and others with your guitar. In this Chorus chapter you’ll also get a very simple boogie-woogie pattern that requires only a simple left hand index finger move. Power in simplicity. If you’re not feeling overwhelmed with new material, in the Bonus Chapter/Lead you get that cool lead that Steve plays in the Intro. Steve goes over it not-by-note with you. Finally, Steve gives you a Bonus Chapter on a “Transition Strum” that you can use as glue to join the verses to the choruses.
Song Information
Midnight Special
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Midnight Special" Roud Folk Song Index 6364 Carl Sandburg-1927 |
|
| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Form | Country blues |
| Original artist | Traditional |
| Recorded by | (Historically) Dave Cutrell–1926 Sam Collins–1929 Lead Belly–1934 (see also Other versions) |
"Midnight Special" is a traditional folk song that probably originated among prisoners in the American South. The title refers to the light of a train that shines through the prison window and represents a light of salvation that can deliver the prisoner from his prison walls. The song is played in the country-blues style. Verses vary and intermix with other prison songs, such as "Jumpin Judy," "Ain't That Berta," "Oh Berta," and "Yon Comes de Sargent." Many of the components of these songs became standard in the blues repertoire and appear in other types of blues songs.
Three early recordings are examples of how traditional folk songs evolve: Dave "Pistol Pete" Cutrell, added humorous verses to his 1926 recording that referred to a "cowboy band." He was a member of the McGinty's Oklahoma Cow Boy Band. Sam Collins added a woman (Nora) to his version in 1927, and Huddie William "Lead Belly" Ledbetter recorded added verses pertaining to a 1927 Houston jailbreak to his version in 1934.
John and Alan Lomax have collected various versions of "Midnight Special," one about a train from Houston, Texas, that passed the Sugarland Prison, and the other about the Illinois Central that passed the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Other versions place the prison in North Carolina. However, most early versions have no particular location.
Other artists that covered "Midnight Special include:
- Burl Ives
- Johnny Rivers
- Big Joe Turner
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Mungo Jerry
- Van Morrison
- Odetta
- Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
- Little Richard
- Buckwheat Zydeco
- Pete Seeger
- The Kingston Trio
- The Spencer Davis Group
- Lonnie Donegan
- Eric Clapton
- Harry Belafonte
- Paul McCartney.
