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We'll compare the original band version of Midnight Special done by CCR with a single piano/vocal by "Bertling88". First... CCR....(I still consider music videos widely available on Youtube to be a novelty and I'm amazed seeing these old tunes I grew up, rather than just hearing them. It's incredible not to mention useful and fun.) I'm not an expert on blues but it seems to me that a lot of these types of earlier rock songs are simply 16 bar conversions of blues songs originally done with 12 bars. More on that soon-- look it up in the index below under... B for Blues. In the discussion, I'll do a version using a Yamaha keyboard with one of the 200 rhythms on the E433-- to show you how it's done that way. Let's start...
Berling88 does a good job on vocals here and the piano is okay but I would have liked more left hand rhythmic patterns going on.
THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL Traditional; arranged by by John Fogerty performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival tab transcribed by Collins Crapo (initially, single, slow strums of each chord) D G Well, you wake up in the mornin' D You hear the work bell ring A7 And they march you to the table D You see the same old thing G Ain't no food upon the table D And no fork up in the pan A7 But you'd better not complain, boy D You'll get in trouble with the man (now speed up tempo and strum continuously; all subsequent verses have same pattern as chorus) CHORUS: G Let the midnight special D Shine the light on me A7 Let the midnight special D Shine the light on me G Let the midnight special D Shine the light on me A7 Let the midnight special D Shine the ever-lovin' light on me Verse 2: Yonder come Miss Rosie How in the world did you know By the way she wears her apron And the clothes she wore Umbrella on her shoulder Piece of paper in her hand She come to see the gov'nor She wanna free her man (chorus) Verse 3: If you're ever in Houston Ooh, you'd better do right You'd better not gamble And you'd better not fight Or the sheriff will grab ya And the boys'll bring you down The next thing you know, boy Ooh, you're prison-bound (chorus twice; 2nd time, at last line, decelerate, with break at "light on me," to final strum of D)
Discussion--
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
