Gladys Knight, before Super Bowl anthem date, criticizes Kaepernick

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | January 18, 2019 | Sopan Deb

[teppe]

Gladys Knight is a great member of the LDS (Mormon) church! I love her!

[kublia khan]

Gladys Knight and Tina Turner, get my Glycerin pills boy I think my heart or something is about to explode.

[FlingWingFlyer]

What the hell is a Kaepernick? Those little snacks they give out at weddings?

[SunkenCiv]

:^)

[CaliforniaCraftBeer]

The song was originally written and performed by Jim Weatherly under the title "Midnight Plane to Houston", which he recorded on Jimmy Bowen's Amos Records. "It was based on a conversation I had with somebody... about taking a midnight plane to Houston," Weatherly recalls. "I wrote it as a kind of a country song. Then we sent the song to a guy named Sonny Limbo in Atlanta and he wanted to cut it with Cissy Houston (mother of Whitney)... he asked if I minded if he changed the title to "Midnight Train to Georgia". And I said, 'I don't mind. Just don't change the rest of the song.'" Weatherly, in an interview with Gary James, stated that the phone conversation was with Farrah Fawcett and he used Fawcett and his friend Lee Majors, whom she had just started dating, "as kind of like characters." He was in a Rec football league with Lee Majors and called Majors one night. Farrah Fawcett answered the phone and he asked what she was doing. She said she was "taking the midnight plane to Houston" to visit her family. He thought that was a catchy phrase for a song, and in writing the song, wondered why someone would leave LA on the midnight plane - which brought the idea of a "superstar, but he didn't get far." Gospel/soul singer Cissy Houston recorded the song as "Midnite Train to Georgia" (spelled "Midnight ..." on the UK single) released in 1973. Weatherly's publisher forwarded the song to Gladys Knight and the Pips, who followed Houston's lead and kept the title "Midnight Train to Georgia." The single debuted on the Hot 100 at number 71 and became the group's first number-one hit eight weeks later when it jumped from number 5 to number 1 on October 27, 1973, replacing "Angie" by the Rolling Stones.

In 1999, "Midnight Train to Georgia" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

 

[TBP]

I hope the Pips are armed. She’ll need good security.

[GOPJ]

“I am here today and on Sunday, Feb. 3, to give the anthem back its voice, to stand for that historic choice of words, the way it unites us when we hear it and to free it from the same prejudices and struggles I have fought long and hard for all my life.”

Gladys Knight - a fellow American...

[higgmeister]

(and FUNFL)

I didn't think the Super Bowl was in Florida, but I hope they have fun too.

[higgmeister]

Has rap gone mainstream and I just didn’t notice it?

That would be a yes. Haven't you noticed young white kids 'frontin, maxin and posin" with their pants down on their thighs?

HOW HIP-HOP AND R&B TOOK OVER THE MAINSTREAM

I haven't listened to the radio in years and years.

[Burma Jones]

I love the story behind “Midnight Train to Georgia.” I was going to post it, so I’m glad you did it first. Fascinating that a songwriter got the idea for a title (and song) from a random phone call with someone who later because hugely famous.

[higgmeister]

“Earlier this week, the NFL announced the halftime acts would be Maroon 5 and rappers Travis Scott and Big Boi”

Who? Never heard any of those names.

One of the Team Coaches on the TV Show, "The Voice", Adam Levine, is also the lead singer of Maroon 5, so the group is very popular with women and progressives (but I repeat myself).

These two Hip Hop guys are popular because all of the older Rap Stars keep OD'ing or killing each other.

[dfwgator]

I’d rather watch “Up With People!”

[higgmeister]

For those who have not heard the song, look up “Midnight Train to Georgia. Crank it up. A classic song and well done. I remember it from the 1970’s.

As an adopted son of Georgia since I was was nine months old, I know the song well.   That was around the start of 1954. I remember it from a week or two ago.

[higgmeister]

Gladys Knight and Tina Turner, get my Glycerin pills boy I think my heart or something is about to explode.

But what a way to go!