Midnight train to Georgia

[steve w]

I've just heard on the radio the lovely Gladys Knight song "Midnight train to Georgia".

It struck me that if her man was desperate to get out of Los Angeles and get to Atlanta, the train is a pretty poor way to do it. The bus is far cheaper, and the plane is much quicker. Train is the worst, except for walking.

Anyone else find any strange anomalies in song lyrics, or is it me with too much time on my hands again?

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I've just heard on the radio the lovely Gladys Knight song "Midnight train to Georgia".

It struck me that if her man was desperate to get out of Los Angeles and get to Atlanta, the train is a pretty poor way to do it. The bus is far cheaper, and the plane is much quicker. Train is the worst, except for walking.

Anyone else find any strange anomalies in song lyrics, or is it me with too much time on my hands again?

Song lyrics are a kind of specialized poetry. In many songs they must tell a story AND do it lyrically.

Think about it. Does the cross country greyhound to Georgia or the redeye flight to Georgia sound as powerful as the midnight train?

-Colly

 

[dr_mabeuse]

You miss the poetry of train travel. Trains are very sexy and full of symbolic resonance: freedom train, hell train, the loneliness of train whistles, the mystery of trains passing by in the dark. Trains have always been a metaphor for power, sex, and fate.

Buses are sordid. Planes are cramped and hateful and about as romantic as airport waiting rooms. Cars are a hassle and bring up images of red eyes and sweaty asses. Trains and ships are the way to go if you're writing poetry.

The only decent plane songs are "Leaving on a Jet Plane", and Steve Miller's "Big Old Jet Airliner", and in both songs the plane is associated with leaving against one's will. Who flies for the pleasure of airline travel?

The best car songwriter in my book is Chuck Berry, and I don't think Gladys Knight would want to get into Chuck's V-8 Ford. Not if she valued her reputation.

"Midnight Train to Georgia" always brings to mind Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay" for me, and I always noticed that it was "dock of the bay" and not "dock in the bay" which probably would have been more correct. But that's a poetry thing; of being a more generous and wistful sound than in.

---ZQL

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Midnight Train to Georgia was released back in 1973. Passenger trains were largely extinct by then but most listeners had memories. As Doc and Colly said, Midnight Bus or even Midnight Plane doesn't evoke the same mood. It was during this same period that Arlo Guthrie released Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" one of the quintessential "train" songs.

In addition to Doc's list of train related images, there's the soul music special, "Soul Train." And I'd have to re-check the lyrics, but Eight Miles High by the Byrds might qualify as another plane song.

Trivia-type question: As anyone who listens to Car Talk on NPR knows, there are many car songs. But has there ever been a successful "bus" song?

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Guest]

Trivia-type question: As anyone who listens to Car Talk on NPR knows, there are many car songs. But has there ever been a successful "bus" song?

Rumple Foreskin [/B]

only one i can think of is dangerously irritating..successful? no but its out there creating havoc...
the wheels on the bus go round and round...
*cringe*

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

only one i can think of is dangerously irritating..successful? no but its out there creating havoc...
the wheels on the bus go round and round...
*cringe*

V-E-L-L-A,

Go to your room.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Guest]

V-E-L-L-A,

Go to your room.

Rumple Foreskin

peace offering

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Midnight Train to Georgia was released back in 1973. Passenger trains were largely extinct by then but most listeners had memories. As Doc and Colly said, Midnight Bus or even Midnight Plane doesn't evoke the same mood. It was during this same period that Arlo Guthrie released Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" one of the quintessential "train" songs.

In addition to Doc's list of train related images, there's the soul music special, "Soul Train." And I'd have to re-check the lyrics, but Eight Miles High by the Byrds might qualify as another plane song.

Trivia-type question: As anyone who listens to Car Talk on NPR knows, there are many car songs. But has there ever been a successful "bus" song?

Rumple Foreskin

Rambling man by the Allman brothers.

"And I was born in the back seat of aGreyhound bus, rolling down highway 49" is a prominent lyric in that song.

-Colly

 

[cloudy]

Rambling man by the Allman brothers.

"And I was born in the back seat of aGreyhound bus, rolling down highway 49" is a prominent lyric in that song.

-Colly

Damnit! That was the name of that song! I kept singing it and singing it trying to remember that stupid title!

Thanks, Colly!

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Damnit! That was the name of that song! I kept singing it and singing it trying to remember that stupid title!

Thanks, Colly!

LOL, I'm an allmans fan

*HUGS*

-Colly

p.s. I had to sing it to myself about 8 times before I finally got into the chorous and remembered the title.

 

[Remec]

only one i can think of is dangerously irritating..successful? no but its out there creating havoc...
the wheels on the bus go round and round...
*cringe*

Hey, don't forget that other classic..."Crazy Bus"

<smile>
Why, yes, I do have small children and watch PBS a lot, why do you ask? <blinkblink>

 

[gauchecritic]

A song that typifies the difference between a midnight train and all its romantic connotations and a Greyhound Bus.

Rod Stewart's "The Killing of Georgie." He uses the bus as the lowest form of transport to re-inforce the ideas of regret and castigation:

Leaving home on a Greyhound bus
cast out by the ones he loved
A victim of these gay days it seems.

"National Express" by Divine Comedy on the other hand, is a v.good pop tune about buses.

Gauche

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Having asked the question about bus songs, I've since thought of one maybe, one possibly, and one absolutely:

(maybe) Bus Stop by The Hollies

(possibly) Magic Bus by The Who

(absolutely) America from Simon & Garfunkel's Bookend

@SONG: AMERICA

"Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together"
"I've got some real estate here in my bag"
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And we walked off to look for America

"Kathy," I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now"
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said "Be careful his bowtie is really a camera"

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"
"We smoked the last one an hour ago"
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all gone to look for America
All gone to look for America
All gone to look for America

 

[alyxen]

You all have missed the most hilarious bus song!!!

Another one rides the bus!

Can't recall if that was Wierd Al or not....

 

[cloudy]

You all have missed the most hilarious bus song!!!

Another one rides the bus!

Can't recall if that was Wierd Al or not....

Yep, Wierd Al. Although I think "My Bologna" was better.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

It's hard to think of anything as unsexy as a bus. I'll always associate buses with the movie "Midnight Cowboy". The scene where Dustin Hoffman wets his pants as he dies on the way to Florida.

When I saw ads for the movie "Speed" I couldn't believe they set it on a runaway bus. Is there anything more ludicrous? I never saw it. I just kept on thinking of that portable toilet sloshing around in the back as they careened around. You know there had to be at least one drunk in the back too.

---Zoot Q Lewis

 

[sincerely_helene]

I wouldn't be opposed to getting drunk in the back of a train.

Don't those toilets slosh too?

Never seen Midnight Cowboy, and now I probably won't.

P.S. Until about a year ago, I thought the words to 'Big Old Jet Airliner' were actually 'Big Old Jedd and Linal'. It was most embarassing when I was caught singing along.

 

[minsue]

There are definitely plenty of good bus songs out there. My favorite, Backseat of a Greyhound Bus by Sara Evans:

On the back seat of a greyhound bus
Head hung down with the windows up
Staring at the rest of her life
She never thought this would be the place
Where she would find her saving grace
But she fell in love, she fell in love
On the backseat of a greyhound bus

It almost always makes me tear up. I'm so easy.

 

[steve w]

I think of Midnight Cowboy every time I get on a Greyhound (which I did a lot in Australia). But I preferred to think of the naive optimism Jon Voight had when he climbed aboard in Texas

This was, of course, before "he" sold his car to George and got bitten by Kramer, as every Seinfeld fan will recall.

 

[shereads]

"Midnight Train to Georgia" always brings to mind Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay" for me,

There's a connection between "Midnight Train" and "Dock of the Bay?" Is Chalabi writing liner notes now?

I always noticed that it was "dock of the bay" and not "dock in the bay" which probably would have been more correct. But that's a poetry thing; of being a more generous and wistful sound than in.

---ZQL

"Dock of the Bay" reminds me of an egg. It's simple and perfect, as if it had been found in a nest instead of created in a recording studio. I love that song.

There is a proven connection between Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay" and George Benson's cover of The Drifters' "On Broadway." Notice that I didn't say "On Broadway" caused "Dock of the Bay."

 

[RavenSpirit2k4]

It's hard to think of anything as unsexy as a bus. I'll always associate buses with the movie "Midnight Cowboy". The scene where Dustin Hoffman wets his pants as he dies on the way to Florida.

When I saw ads for the movie "Speed" I couldn't believe they set it on a runaway bus. Is there anything more ludicrous? I never saw it. I just kept on thinking of that portable toilet sloshing around in the back as they careened around. You know there had to be at least one drunk in the back too.

---Zoot Q Lewis

Funny, when I hear a song that mentions a bus, I always think of the scene in The Lost World in which a bus was attacked by a T-rex.

Songs mentioning trains go way, way back in the blues, before even Robert Johnson's day. This is where a lot of that comes from in modern or fairly recent music too.