Goodnight, Irene

"Goodnight, Irene" or "Irene, Goodnight," is a 20th century American folk standard. The lyrics tell how the singer lost his love through "rambling and gambling". He contemplates suicide in the famous line "Sometimes I take a great notion to jump in the river and drown". The final verse urges the listener to "go home to your wife and family". In addition to many recorded versions, it is also a favorite camp and fireside song.

Some sources, including blues scholar Paul Oliver, claim the version popularized by Lead Belly in the 1940s, which he titled just "Irene," is based on the 1886 pop song by Gussie L. Davis. Lead Belly himself said he had learned it from his uncle. It was a US #1 hit for folk group The Weavers in 1950. The song is written in 3/4 time.

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American blues singer, "King of The Twelve-String Guitar," who twice sang himself out of jails. Ledbetter helped to inspire the folk and blues revivals of the Fifties and Sixties and he was one of the first traditional folk musicians to perform for a city audience. Ledbetter's perseverance and power earned him the nickname Leadbelly - he could pick in the cotton fields 1,000 pounds a day. According to some critics, Leadbelly's rendition of Blind Lemon's 'Matchbox Blues,' using a knife-slide guitar technique, was probably the finest blues he ever recorded.



"Friend, did you bring me the silver,
Friend, did you bring me the gold,
What did you bring me my dear friend,
To keep me from the gallow's pole. "
(from Leadbelly, Shout On!, 1948)

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The train from Houston to San Antonio, approximating the route of Alternate 90, would arrive in Sugar Land at midnight, it's light shining brightly. Prisoners imagined it was their passage to freedom.

Huddie Ledbetter usually escaped from the cellblocks he found himself confined in, but from Sugar Land he was formally pardoned on January 25, 1925 by Texas Governor Pat M. Neff, who was impressed with Ledbetter's ability to interpret songs.

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The Midnight Special

The Midnight Special was the name of a passenger train formerly operated by the Chicago and Alton Railroad and its successor, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The train ran on an overnight schedule, and in later years carried the last regularly scheduled Pullman sleeping car between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. The train made its final run on April 30, 1971, although Amtrak continued several other passenger trains over the same route traversed by the Midnight Special.

This Midnight Special, is not the same train as in the famous Leadbelly song "Midnight Special." That song refers to the Southern Pacific's Golden Gate Limited, which was locally known in Houston, Texas, as the Midnight Special, because it departed Houston's Southern Pacific Depot at Midnight.


Well you wake up in the morning, hear the ding dong ring,
You go a-marching to the table, see the same damn thing
Well, it's on a one table, knife, a fork and a pan,
And if you say anything about it, you're in trouble with the man
Let the midnight special, shine her light on me
Let the midnight special, shine her ever-loving light on me
If you ever go to Houston, you better walk right, you better not stagger, you better not fight
Sheriff Benson will arrest you, he'll carry you down
And if the jury finds you guilty, penitentiary bound
Yonder come little Rosie, how in the world do you know
I can tell her by her apron, and the dress she wore
Umbrella on her shoulder, piece of paper in her hand
She goes a-marching to the captain, says, "I want my man"
"I don' believe that Rosie loves me", well tell me why
She ain't been to see me, since las' July
She brought me little coffee, she brought me little tea
Brought me damn near ever'thing but the jailhouse key
Yonder comes doctor Adams, "How in the world do you know?"
Well he gave me a tablet, the day befo'
There ain't no doctor, in all the lan'
Can cure the fever of a convict man

Odetta (born December 31, 1930) is an African-American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement." Her musical repertoire consists largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and '60s, she was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Janis Joplin.

Biography

Early life

She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, grew up in Los Angeles, California, and studied music at Los Angeles City College. Having operatic training from the age of 13, her first professional experience was in musical theater in 1944, as an ensemble member for four years with the Hollywood Turnabout Puppet Theatre, working alongside Elsa Lanchester; she later joined the national touring company of the musical Finian's Rainbow in 1949.

Career beginnings

While on tour with Finian's Rainbow, Odetta "fell in with an enthusiastic group of young balladeers in San Francisco", and after 1950 concentrated on folksinging.

She made her name by playing around the United States: at the Blue Angel nightclub (New York City), the hungry i (San Francisco), and Tin Angel (San Francisco), where she and Larry Mohr recorded Odetta and Larry in 1954, for Fantasy Records.

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