Midnight Train to Frustration

 

It's hard to say anything negative about the 432nd greatest song of all time as recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips, "Midnight Train to Georgia."

EXCEPT...

What if you read the lyric and think about Gladys trying to tell this fairly straightforward story of a guy who tried to make it in the big city but gives up, buys a ticket to go back home to Georgia, and his girlfriend makes the choice to uproot her life and follow him into the Deep South. It's a romantic tale, and Gladys wants her listeners to feel what she's feeling...but these three guys keep grabbing the mic from her and mouthing off in the middle of her sentences:

L.A. proved too much for the man
(Too much for the man, he couldn't make it)
So he's leaving a life he's come to know, ooh
(He said he's going)
He said he's going back to find
(Going back to find)
Ooh, what's left of his world
The world he left behind not so long ago

He's leaving
(Leaving)
On that midnight train to Georgia, yeah
(Leaving on the midnight train)
Said he's going back
(Going back to find)
To a simpler place and time, oh yes he is
(Whenever he takes that ride, guess who's gonna be right by his side)
I'll be with him
(I know you will)
On that midnight train to Georgia
(Leaving on a midnight train to Georgia, woo woo)
I'd rather live in his world
(Live in his world)
Than live without him in mine
(Her world is his, his and hers alone)

He kept dreaming
(Dreaming)
Ooh, that someday he'd be a star
(A superstar, but he didn't get far)
But he sure found out the hard way
That dreams don't always come true, oh no, uh uh
(Dreams don't always come true, uh uh, no, uh uh)

Gladys: Will you just shut the farnsworth UP?!!?