Uploaded July 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 137 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "A fast train, such as "The. Midnight Special," means a getaway, outside air, freedom. They sing about it in the Houston,Texas, jailhouse and elsewhere. The verses here can with little or no practice be adjusted to the tune of Midnight Special (1) in our folio of Dramas and Portraits."
From the Traditional Ballad Index: "I seem to recall a legend that, should the light of the Midnight Special shine on a convict, he would soon be freed. I can'r remember where I heard this, though. I've more recently found this mentioned in Sing Out magazine, Volume 37, #2 (1992), pp, 54, but I'm sure I heard it somewhere else. That issue of Sing Out refers to another legend, in which highly favored convicts were allowed visits from prostitutes brought in on a special train. (The problem with this, of course, is that someone had to pay the prostitutes, so I rather doubt it.)
"Carl Sandburg, on the other hand, believes that the song refers to suicide: That the convict would rather be dead under the wheels of the train than spend another twenty years in prison." (RBW)
Day 137 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "A fast train, such as "The. Midnight Special," means a getaway, outside air, freedom. They sing about it in the Houston,Texas, jailhouse and elsewhere. The verses here can with little or no practice be adjusted to the tune of Midnight Special (1) in our folio of Dramas and Portraits."
From the Traditional Ballad Index: "I seem to recall a legend that, should the light of the Midnight Special shine on a convict, he would soon be freed. I can'r remember where I heard this, though. I've more recently found this mentioned in Sing Out magazine, Volume 37, #2 (1992), pp, 54, but I'm sure I heard it somewhere else. That issue of Sing Out refers to another legend, in which highly favored convicts were allowed visits from prostitutes brought in on a special train. (The problem with this, of course, is that someone had to pay the prostitutes, so I rather doubt it.)
"Carl Sandburg, on the other hand, believes that the song refers to suicide: That the convict would rather be dead under the wheels of the train than spend another twenty years in prison." (RBW)
