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What SMOKING music are you listening to? (2025)

The Midnight Special
What you don't know.

The song as we know it today is about convicts seeing the train "The Midnight Special" shining it's light toward freedom. However, The first recorded version (1927) had nothing to do with that while one of the two first versions in print (1905) did. Also many of the verses were regional with variants of the tune going back to at least the 1870's and most have nothing to do with trains..

So I'll start with a variant from 1927, Watts & Wilson - Walk Into the Belmont and follow that up with the first recorded somewhat familiar version in 1926. Dave "Pistol Pete" Cutrell - Midnight Special. Next is the first really popular version of what we know today - Lead Belly recorded the song while in prison in 1934. Lead Belly re-recorded the song a few times and one of those were what CCR covered in 1969 lyrically almost exactly the same.




 
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