{"id":479,"date":"2010-05-21T10:09:12","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T14:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/?p=479"},"modified":"2010-05-21T10:09:12","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T14:09:12","slug":"cat-fight-over-the-history-of-midnight-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/2010\/05\/21\/cat-fight-over-the-history-of-midnight-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Cat Fight Over The History Of &#8220;Midnight Special&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Friday Night Cat Fight Show<\/span><\/h2>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The<\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">History Of<\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">&#8220;Midnight Special&#8221;<\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Midnight Special\" src=\"http:\/\/labuhardilla.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/10\/bellyprint.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"360\" \/><\/span><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">The &#8220;Midnight Special&#8221; is a traditional folk tune about a passenger train that roared past a prison every night. The singer of the tune dreamed of the freedom that waited just outside his prison walls. It was first committed to paper in 1905, but didn&#8217;t appear on record until 1926 when Dave &#8220;Pistol Pete&#8221; Cutrell recorded it for Okeh with some new lyrics that referenced his band. Leadbelly popularized the song after he let Alan Lomax record him singing it for the Library Of Congress in 1934. The song entered the R&amp;B charts as an instrumental in 1948 with Tiny Grimes cutting it for the then new Atlantic Label. In 1952, The Weavers had a small hit with is, but it didn&#8217;t hit the Rock n&#8217; Roll Era until Big Joe Turner cut it in 1957. From there, it became a pop hit for Paul Evans in 1960 and Johnny Rivers in 1965. Credence Clearwater Revival included their inspired version of &#8220;Midnight Special&#8221; on their 1969 LP, &#8220;Willie &amp; The Poor Boys&#8221;. This week, 7 versions of the tune (Leadbelly to CCR) will be competing for YOUR Vote. For historical purposes, I do include the original 1926 recording by Dave Cutrell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">I&#8217;ll also take a look at some of the popular songs that were recorded on THIS DAY (5-21-10) in rock n&#8217; roll history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><a title=\"Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/FNCF\/?p=442\" target=\"_blank\">Click HERE to Listen To The Cat Fight Podcast<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, The Cat Fight Show traces the history and evolution of the traditional folk tune, &#8220;Midnight Special.&#8221;  We&#8217;ll go from Dave Cutrell&#8217;s 1926 recording up through CCR&#8217;s 1969 take on this classic tune.  Plus, songs that were recorded on this day (5-21-10) in rock n&#8217; roll history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friday-night-cat-fight-radio-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mattthecat.com\/Blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}