Getting An Early Start On Music Monday: Midnight Train to Georgia

It's Friday night in the Roxiticus Valley, but I'm already thinking about Music Monday. Gladys Knight came on my iPod singin' "Midnight Train to Georgia" as part of a "Wilson Picket Genius" set, bringing back two different sets of terrific memories for me.

Just about eight years ago, a couple of months after London was born, one of our clients had a huge company anniversary party down in Washington, D.C. We loaded up the Suburban and drove down on a Friday afternoon, bringing along Rex's son TallBoy (then a high school Junior in the midst of college tours on his Spring Break) as our babysitter. After we checked into our hotel and arrived at our host's home, we found Gladys Knight in the midst of a private concert that featured "Midnight Train" as an amazing encore. The next night, our client had rented out the Naional Building Museum and Gladys Knight and the Pips put on another great performance, but there was something truly special about the small "in crowd" show the night before that I'll never forget.

The song also takes me back to February 1994, when my friend Melissa and I traveled to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras in the grandest of tradition... I didn't show my stuff to anyone in exchange for a few beads, but I still remember one night in a corner bar with an unknown singer belting out "Midnight Train" into the sultry open air. The crowd just kept on screamin' out for more, and she must have sung the song five times before the night was through...

Enjoy!



L.A. proved too much for the man,
So he's leavin' the life he's come to know,
He said he's goin' back to find
Ooh, what's left of his world,
The world he left behind
Not so long ago.
He's leaving,
On that midnight train to Georgia,
And he's goin' back
To a simpler place and time.
And I'll be with him
On that midnight train to Georgia,
I'd rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine.
He kept dreamin'
That someday he'd be a star.
But he sure found out the hard way
That dreams don't always come true.
So he pawned all his hopes
and he even sold his old car
Bought a one way ticket
To the life he once knew,
Oh yes he did,
He said he would
Be leavin
On that midnight train to Georgia,
And he's goin' back
To a simpler place and time.
And I'll be with him
On that midnight train to Georgia,
I'd rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine.
Go, gonna board, gonna board,
Gonna board the midnight train.
Gotta go, gonna board
Gonna board
Gonna board the midnight train
(repeat, fade)