Midnight Special Blues (Sam Collins)

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1. Lead Belly

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2. Joe Turner

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3. Harry Belafonte

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4. Big Bill Broonzy

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5. Jody Miller

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6. Buckwheat Zydeco

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7. Otis Rush

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8. Lonnie Donegan

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9. Cisco Houston

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10. mind if I interrupt?

“Midnight Special” originally sung by Lead Belly. The song is based on his experience of getting arrested Houston, his stay at the Sugar Land Prison (now the Beauford H. Jester pre-release Center) in 1925, and the legend of the Midnight Special.

The Midnight Special was a train that ran from Houston to San Antonio, approximating the route of Alternate 90. The train passed through the middle of the town of Sugar Land, and west of town, through the heart of what used to be known as the Imperial State Prison Farm (Sugar Land Prison), each day at midnight. Its headlight flashed through the bars and into the prison.

The superstition was that if the light shined on you, that meant your woman was on the train with the papers from the Governor to get you out of prison. Thus, the men hoped the light of the Midnight Special would shine it light on them.

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13. Midnight Special (Howard Odum, 1905)

... yonder come miss Rosey!
how in the world do you know?
how in the world do you know?
well I know her by her apron and the dress she wore.
umbrella on her shoulder, piece of paper in her hand,
she gonna tell old John, she want back her man.
she want back her man ...
http://www.aerenlund.dk/tekster/vis_print.asp?id=606&print=ja

[KMOD]

11. oh baby

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12. what? No Wolfman Jack?