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08-09-2013, 09:59 PM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323968704578652213791418962.html?m od=trending_now_3#
Anatomy of a Song: 'Midnight Train to Georgia'
An oral history of Gladys Knight and the Pips' 1973 hit that began as a country ballad inspired by a phone call with Farrah Fawcett and wound up a Grammy-winner.
By
MARC MYERS
As Gladys Knight's recording of "Neither One of Us [[Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" climbed the charts in 1973, she asked Jim Weatherly, the song's composer, for another love song. He sent along "Midnight Train to Georgia," which Cissy Houston had recorded a year earlier.
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-YM158_0809mi_D_20130808133340.jpg [[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323968704578652213791418962.html#)
NBC via Getty ImagesGladys Knight and the Pips
Envisioning a seductive, punchy instrumentation behind her, Ms. Knight turned to producer Tony Camillo for an Al Green feel. Within weeks of its release 40 years ago in August, Ms. Knight and the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia" reached No.1 on the pop and R&B charts—earning a Grammy in 1974. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Recently, Ms. Knight, 69, Mr. Weatherly, 70, Ms. Houston, 79, and Mr. Camillo, 74, talked about the song's evolution—from a phone call with Farrah Fawcett to Ms. Knight's famed ad-libs. Edited from interviews.
Jim Weatherly: In the late '60s I was living in Los Angeles in a one-bedroom apartment—trying to get recording artists to pay attention to my songs. One evening in 1970, I called Lee Majors, an actor friend who had just started dating model Farrah Fawcett. Lee and I had played college football and we were in a flag-football league together. Farrah answered the phone. She said Lee wasn't home and that she was packing to take a midnight plane to Houston to visit her folks. What a great line for a song, I thought.
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AR-AD292A_MIDNI_D_20130808230614.jpg
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AR-AD292A_MIDNI_G_20130808230614.jpg
illustration by James Gulliver HancockSOUL TRAIN The original song was about a midnight flight to Houston. Then Cissy Houston made it a Georgia-bound train, and Gladys Knight and the Pips added an Al Green feel, resulting in a No. 1 hit.
After I got off the phone, I grabbed my guitar and wrote "Midnight Plane to Houston" in about 45 minutes—the music and lyrics. The line "I'd rather live in her world than live without her in mine" locked the whole song. I also used a descending bass pattern, which was the song's natural movement. Then I filed away the song.
In 1971 I signed with manager-publisher Larry Gordon, who urged me to record an album of my songs—to improve my chances that top artists would record them. I put "Midnight Plane" on there along with "Neither One of Us."
The strategy worked. When the album came out on RCA in 1972, Larry sent Gladys Knight's producer "Neither One of Us," which she loved. We also got a call from producer Sonny Limbo in Atlanta. Cissy Houston wanted to record "Midnight Plane" but felt it needed an R&B title. They wanted to change it to "Midnight Train to Georgia." I was fine with that.
Cissy Houston: When Sonny played me Jim's song, I loved it right away. It was a country ballad that told a good story—about two people in love. But I wanted to change the title. My people are originally from Georgia and they didn't take planes to Houston or anywhere else. They took trains. We recorded the single in Memphis in 1972 with a country-gospel thing going, and I arranged the background singers. But Janus, my label, didn't do much to promote it and we moved on.
Mr. Weatherly: After Cissy's single came out, Larry sent it to Gladys, who's from Atlanta. She and the Pips loved it. The next step was for Gladys to find an arranger and producer.
Tony Camillo: In the late '60s, I owned my own studio in New Jersey and produced records for George Clinton, Freda Payne, Blood Sweat & Tears, the Honey Cone, the Dramatics and others. In 1973, Buddah Records offered me a multiyear exclusive contract and I took it.
Two weeks later, Buddah signed Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Neil Bogart, who ran the label, called and asked if I wanted to produce them. The song was "Midnight Train to Georgia." Initially I wrote two arrangements for the song but I wasn't happy with them. The music needed to be catchier, to jump out of the radio.
Gladys Knight: I listened to Cissy's version and loved it—but I knew I wanted to do something different. I wanted an Al Green thing, you know, something moody with a little ride to it. I've always liked my tracks full—horns, keyboards and other instruments—to create texture and spark something in me.
I also wanted to change a few of Jim's original lyrics—add a word or two and take out a few. So I'd call him every day. I'd say, "Hey Jim, what do you think of 'So he's leaving a life he's come to know?' instead of 'we've come to know?' Jim was cool with everything. He allowed us that freedom.
Mr. Camillo: After I spoke with Gladys about what she wanted, I kept the rhythm section spare and used horns. For the rhythm tracks, I called in Jeff Mironov on guitar, Bob Babbit on bass and Andrew Smith on drums. I played the Wurlitzer electric piano.
Then I brought in top guys to play the horns—Randy Brecker and Alan Rubin on trumpets, Michael Brecker and Lewis Del Gatto on saxes and Meco Monardo and Dave Taylor on trombones. After, I mixed the rhythm and horn tracks together, I took the tape to Detroit, where Gladys and the Pips recorded their vocal tracks.
Ms. Knight: When Tony came to Detroit, our whole team came down to the studio—managers, label executives, Tony's crew. The place was jammed. I had worked out the Pips' background vocals and we rehearsed. At the studio, I recorded a scratch vocal—something the Pips could hear in their headsets while they recorded their parts.
When they finished, it was my turn. Now I'm not a scatter or an ad-libber—the inspirational things that are typically improvised along the way. I had this mental block about doing that freely. After my first take, my brother [Merald] "Bubba" Knight, who led the Pips, said I had to put in some ad-libs. "Gladys," he said, "the song is begging for it. You can do it."
But when I got to the ad-lib section on the second take, I got stuck. I was struggling with it. So Bubba went into the booth and fed them to me through my headset. He told me, "Just sing what I say in your headset." So we did another take, with Bubba feeding me lines—things like "Gonna board, gotta board, the midnight train" and "My world, his world, our world," and "I've got to go, I've got to go" and "My world, his world, my man, his girl" at the fade. Well, it worked.
Mr. Camillo: After the vocals were recorded, I took the tapes back to my studio in New Jersey. I overdubbed a string section for sweetening as well as Barry Miles on acoustic piano and me on Hammond organ and hand percussion to fill out the background.
Ms. Knight: While recording that single, I was thinking about my own situation. My husband at the time was a beautiful saxophonist and so gifted. But he was unhappy that we didn't have a more traditional marriage because I was often on the road or recording. Ultimately it all proved too much for him, like the song said, and we divorced later, in '73. I was going through the exact same thing that I was singing about when recording—which is probably why it sounds so personal.
Anatomy of a Song: 'Midnight Train to Georgia'
An oral history of Gladys Knight and the Pips' 1973 hit that began as a country ballad inspired by a phone call with Farrah Fawcett and wound up a Grammy-winner.
By
MARC MYERS
As Gladys Knight's recording of "Neither One of Us [[Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" climbed the charts in 1973, she asked Jim Weatherly, the song's composer, for another love song. He sent along "Midnight Train to Georgia," which Cissy Houston had recorded a year earlier.
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-YM158_0809mi_D_20130808133340.jpg [[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323968704578652213791418962.html#)
NBC via Getty ImagesGladys Knight and the Pips
Envisioning a seductive, punchy instrumentation behind her, Ms. Knight turned to producer Tony Camillo for an Al Green feel. Within weeks of its release 40 years ago in August, Ms. Knight and the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia" reached No.1 on the pop and R&B charts—earning a Grammy in 1974. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Recently, Ms. Knight, 69, Mr. Weatherly, 70, Ms. Houston, 79, and Mr. Camillo, 74, talked about the song's evolution—from a phone call with Farrah Fawcett to Ms. Knight's famed ad-libs. Edited from interviews.
Jim Weatherly: In the late '60s I was living in Los Angeles in a one-bedroom apartment—trying to get recording artists to pay attention to my songs. One evening in 1970, I called Lee Majors, an actor friend who had just started dating model Farrah Fawcett. Lee and I had played college football and we were in a flag-football league together. Farrah answered the phone. She said Lee wasn't home and that she was packing to take a midnight plane to Houston to visit her folks. What a great line for a song, I thought.
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AR-AD292A_MIDNI_D_20130808230614.jpg
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AR-AD292A_MIDNI_G_20130808230614.jpg
illustration by James Gulliver HancockSOUL TRAIN The original song was about a midnight flight to Houston. Then Cissy Houston made it a Georgia-bound train, and Gladys Knight and the Pips added an Al Green feel, resulting in a No. 1 hit.
After I got off the phone, I grabbed my guitar and wrote "Midnight Plane to Houston" in about 45 minutes—the music and lyrics. The line "I'd rather live in her world than live without her in mine" locked the whole song. I also used a descending bass pattern, which was the song's natural movement. Then I filed away the song.
In 1971 I signed with manager-publisher Larry Gordon, who urged me to record an album of my songs—to improve my chances that top artists would record them. I put "Midnight Plane" on there along with "Neither One of Us."
The strategy worked. When the album came out on RCA in 1972, Larry sent Gladys Knight's producer "Neither One of Us," which she loved. We also got a call from producer Sonny Limbo in Atlanta. Cissy Houston wanted to record "Midnight Plane" but felt it needed an R&B title. They wanted to change it to "Midnight Train to Georgia." I was fine with that.
Cissy Houston: When Sonny played me Jim's song, I loved it right away. It was a country ballad that told a good story—about two people in love. But I wanted to change the title. My people are originally from Georgia and they didn't take planes to Houston or anywhere else. They took trains. We recorded the single in Memphis in 1972 with a country-gospel thing going, and I arranged the background singers. But Janus, my label, didn't do much to promote it and we moved on.
Mr. Weatherly: After Cissy's single came out, Larry sent it to Gladys, who's from Atlanta. She and the Pips loved it. The next step was for Gladys to find an arranger and producer.
Tony Camillo: In the late '60s, I owned my own studio in New Jersey and produced records for George Clinton, Freda Payne, Blood Sweat & Tears, the Honey Cone, the Dramatics and others. In 1973, Buddah Records offered me a multiyear exclusive contract and I took it.
Two weeks later, Buddah signed Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Neil Bogart, who ran the label, called and asked if I wanted to produce them. The song was "Midnight Train to Georgia." Initially I wrote two arrangements for the song but I wasn't happy with them. The music needed to be catchier, to jump out of the radio.
Gladys Knight: I listened to Cissy's version and loved it—but I knew I wanted to do something different. I wanted an Al Green thing, you know, something moody with a little ride to it. I've always liked my tracks full—horns, keyboards and other instruments—to create texture and spark something in me.
I also wanted to change a few of Jim's original lyrics—add a word or two and take out a few. So I'd call him every day. I'd say, "Hey Jim, what do you think of 'So he's leaving a life he's come to know?' instead of 'we've come to know?' Jim was cool with everything. He allowed us that freedom.
Mr. Camillo: After I spoke with Gladys about what she wanted, I kept the rhythm section spare and used horns. For the rhythm tracks, I called in Jeff Mironov on guitar, Bob Babbit on bass and Andrew Smith on drums. I played the Wurlitzer electric piano.
Then I brought in top guys to play the horns—Randy Brecker and Alan Rubin on trumpets, Michael Brecker and Lewis Del Gatto on saxes and Meco Monardo and Dave Taylor on trombones. After, I mixed the rhythm and horn tracks together, I took the tape to Detroit, where Gladys and the Pips recorded their vocal tracks.
Ms. Knight: When Tony came to Detroit, our whole team came down to the studio—managers, label executives, Tony's crew. The place was jammed. I had worked out the Pips' background vocals and we rehearsed. At the studio, I recorded a scratch vocal—something the Pips could hear in their headsets while they recorded their parts.
When they finished, it was my turn. Now I'm not a scatter or an ad-libber—the inspirational things that are typically improvised along the way. I had this mental block about doing that freely. After my first take, my brother [Merald] "Bubba" Knight, who led the Pips, said I had to put in some ad-libs. "Gladys," he said, "the song is begging for it. You can do it."
But when I got to the ad-lib section on the second take, I got stuck. I was struggling with it. So Bubba went into the booth and fed them to me through my headset. He told me, "Just sing what I say in your headset." So we did another take, with Bubba feeding me lines—things like "Gonna board, gotta board, the midnight train" and "My world, his world, our world," and "I've got to go, I've got to go" and "My world, his world, my man, his girl" at the fade. Well, it worked.
Mr. Camillo: After the vocals were recorded, I took the tapes back to my studio in New Jersey. I overdubbed a string section for sweetening as well as Barry Miles on acoustic piano and me on Hammond organ and hand percussion to fill out the background.
Ms. Knight: While recording that single, I was thinking about my own situation. My husband at the time was a beautiful saxophonist and so gifted. But he was unhappy that we didn't have a more traditional marriage because I was often on the road or recording. Ultimately it all proved too much for him, like the song said, and we divorced later, in '73. I was going through the exact same thing that I was singing about when recording—which is probably why it sounds so personal.