Old Music Friday – Gladys Knight ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’

Old music is understandably relative. It can come with baggage, attachments, bias and context. It can be a go to, a safe space, a place where the feelings you receive are a known quantity, an emotional guarantee. Old music can also bookmark stand out moments in life.

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New music’s cool but have you ever heard old music?

Captivated from the snare roll that drops directly into the horn stabs that seems to be in a conversation with the rest of the band. Mirroring the story we are about to hear from Gladys Knight about her man.

If this song isn’t a staple in your rotation then that must be corrected immediately. Listen to the song and watch the movie in your head. Feel the push and pull. Witness the dilemma. Be a part of the decision making process. This song lets you in.

We need to talk about The Pips, three grown men who embrace, support, lift up their female friend. The don’t just repeat lines for effect or sing oo’s and ahh’s. They affirm Gladys. They bolster her lead. They hold their own, so much so that I can sing along to this song once as Gladys, once as The Pips and once as all of them. More pips please guys, more pips.

This song was written by Jim Weatherly and was originally called “Midnight Plane To Houston”. It was inspired by a phone call between Lee Majors and Farah Fawcett.

Weatherly heard Fawcett say she was taking the midnight plane to Houston and it gave him the idea for the song. Gladys Knight and the Pips got hold of it and changed plane to train and Houston to Georgia to make it feel more like them and the rest as they say is history.

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Words: Owen Cutts