YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 149 (Midnight Music)
(Originally finalized on August 5, 2025)
Preface: I hope you've had a good night's sleep, because this week we're staying up listening to music past midnight!
Monday: The Runaways - Midnight Music [Queens of Noise, 1977]
Comments: To set the mood for the week, here's a song from The Runaways' second album, featuring Cherie Currie on vocals. Although I wouldn't call it one of the band's best songs, the chorus does have a way of getting into your head.
Tuesday: Journey - Midnight Dreamer [Look Into The Future, 1976]
Comments: As a tie-in to last week's theme of dreaming, here's a song from Journey's own second album, released a year prior - and before the addition of vocalist Steve Perry, which rocketed the band to super stardom.
Wednesday: The Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler [Let It Bleed, 1969]
Comments: It's a credit to the bad boys of rock 'n' roll (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), that they could write a song about a serial killer (it's a well known fact that the "midnight rambler" was inspired by the Boston Strangler) and make it sound positively seductive. It's become a cornerstone of their live stage show.
Thursday: The Allman Brothers Band - Midnight Rider [Idlewild South, 1970]
Comments: Written primarily by vocalist Gregg Allman (with a little help from an exasperated roadie), who was so eager to record a demo that they broke into the studio in the middle of the night, this song wasn't a success until it was re-recorded for Gregg Allman's solo debut album in 1973.
Friday: Creedence Clearwater Revival - The Midnight Special [Willy And The Poor Boys, 1969]
Comments: Overshadowed by such enormous hits as Down On The Corner and Fortunate Son (which appear on the same album), John Fogerty displays a soulful musicality on this arrangement of a traditional folk tune by way of Lead Belly, about a prisoner contemplating salvation in the headlight of a nightbound train.
Saturday: Gary Moore - Midnight Blues [Still Got The Blues, 1990]
Comments: In 1990, Irish guitarist Gary Moore - former member of the band Thin Lizzy, and inheritor of Peter Green's guitar - declared his dedication to the blues, with the album Still Got The Blues. The title track is one of his greatest contributions to electric blues canon, but this album closer creates a delectably somber mood.
Sunday: Eric Clapton - After Midnight [released as a single, 1988]
Comments: For his debut as a solo artist in 1970, Eric Clapton recorded this J.J. Cale-penned tune - but it's a jaunty, upbeat affair. Although opinions are mixed, I much prefer this version re-recorded for a beer commercial in 1988. It's slower, and much more soulful, and has an all-around better ambience.
Honorable Mention: B.B. King - Three O' Clock Blues [released as a single, 1951]
Comments: It's three o' clock in the morning, isn't it about time you got to bed? I wanted to include this song, even though it doesn't mention midnight. A Lowell Fulson cover, it was B.B. King's first hit single. A later version recorded in 2000 for Eric Clapton's collaboration with King (titled Riding With The King) is also worth hearing.