The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #72889 Message #2097402
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
08-Jul-07 - 11:08 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Midnight Special
Subject: Lyr. Add: Pistol Pete's Midnight Special (1926)
(Hit the space bar by accident, which submit's message- durn!)
Discussed above by Gargoyle, but lyrics not given.
Lyr. Add: PISTOL PETE'S MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
Chorus and 1st. verse:
Wake up in the mornin', hear the ding-dong ring,
Go marchin' to the table and there's the same old thing.
Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me.
Let the Midnight Special shine her ever-loving light on me.
Yonder comes my woman. How 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,
Marching down to the captain, she says, "I wants my man."
Chorus:
I never had the blues so in all my life before,
Than when my baby left me, at the jailhouse door.
Oh, she left me crying, the tears rolled down her face,
Says, "I'd rather see you dead, boy, than in this place."
Chorus:
Now, Mister McGinty is a good man,
But he's run away now with a cowboy band.
Chorus:
Now Otto Gray, he's a Stillwater man.
But he's manager now of a cowboy band.
Chorus:
When you get to the city, boys, you better have the [bail?],
Or the law, they'll arrest you, and they'll put you in jail.
The judge he'll fine you, they'll shake you down,
If you haven't got the money, boys, you're jailhouse bound.
Chorus:
If you got a good man, woman, you better keep him at home,
For those city women won't leave him alone.
They'll paint and powder, they sure look swell,
And the first thing you know, woman, your man's gone to h---.
Chorus:
Dave Cutrell, "Pistol Pete's Midnight Special," with McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band. Recorded May 11, 1926, in Saint Louis, MO; OKeh Master 9650-A, released on OKeh 45057, ca. Sept. 1926.
pp. 478-484, with score, Norm Cohen, 1981, "Long Steel Rail."
Billy McGinty was not a musician, but he was an early cowboy and a member of Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders." He headed up a group of old-time musicians.