The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs
The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs | ||||
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Studio album by Lead Belly and the Golden Gate Quartet | ||||
Released | 1940 | |||
Recorded | June 15 and 17, 1940, New York City | |||
Genre |
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Length | 18:08 | |||
Label | Victor Records | |||
Producer | Robert P. Weatherald | |||
Lead Belly chronology | ||||
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The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs is an album by Lead Belly and the Golden Gate Quartet, recorded for Victor Records in 1940 and released a few months later.[1]: 220–22
In 1939, Lead Belly was back in jail for assault after stabbing a man in a fight in Manhattan. The ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who had started to make field recordings of folk music for the Library of Congress, helped raise money for Lead Belly's legal expenses.[2] It was Lomax's original intent to record songs in prison, but instead a recording studio was used. To create a "prison" feel Lomax suggested that the Golden Gate Quartet back Lead Belly. However, the Golden Gate Quartet was a polished, professional group, and Lead Belly had to teach them how to sing as a group of prisoners would sing the selected songs.[3]
The album was issued with extensive notes and song texts prepared by Alan Lomax. According to Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, "it was one of the finest public presentations of Leadbelly's music: well recorded, well advertised, well documented. And the album justified its reputation as a landmark in African American folk music."[1]: 222
The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs was originally released a three-disc collection of 78 rpm records, catalog number Victor P-50. All tracks were recorded at Victor Studios in New York City on June 15 and 17, 1940.[1]: 298–300
Track listing
No. | Title | Matrix Number | Length |
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1. | "The Midnight Special" | 051298-1 | 3:07 |
2. | "Ham an' Eggs" | 051333-1 | 2:59 |
3. | "Grey Goose" | 051327-2 | 2:57 |
4. | "Stewball" | 051329-1 | 3:01 |
5. | "Pick a Bale of Cotton" | 051295-1 | 3:01 |
6. | "Alabama Bound" | 051299-1 | 3:03 |
References
- ^ a b c Wolfe, Charles; Lornell, Kip (1992). The Life and Legend of Leadbelly. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060168625.
- ^ Bullock Texas State History Museum. "78 RPM Lead Belly Record | Bullock Texas State History Museum". www.thestoryoftexas.com. Archived from the original on September 10, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^ Szwed, John (2010). Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World. New York: Viking. p. 169. ISBN 9781101190340.
External links
- The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs at Discogs (list of releases)
- v
- t
- e
- Negro Sinful Songs
- The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs
- Play Parties in Song and Dance
- Work Songs of the U.S.A.
- Songs by Lead Belly
- Negro Folk Songs
- Midnight Special
- Leadbelly Sings Folk Songs
- Lead Belly Sings for Children
- Folkways: The Original Vision (Woody and LeadBelly)
- The Smithsonian Folkways Collection
- "John Hardy"
- "Midnight Special"
- "Goodnight, Irene"
- "Take This Hammer"
- "Rock Island Line"
- "The Bourgeois Blues"
- "Black Betty"
- "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
- "Pick a Bale of Cotton"
- "Cotton Fields"
- "Boll Weevil"
- "Alabama Bound"
- "Duncan and Brady"
- "How Long, How Long"
- "Alberta"
- "Mr. Hitler"
- "How Come You Do Me Like You Do?"
- "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"
- "House of the Rising Sun"
- "Backwater Blues"
- "Vigilante Man"
- "Skip to My Lou"
- "The Blue Tailed Fly (Jimmie Crack Corn)"
- Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet
- Blind Lemon Jefferson
- Pat Morris Neff
- Leadbelly (1976 film)
- MTV Unplugged in New York