Midnight Train

You can hear the song here.

“Midnight Train” was first written and demoed in 1995.

The musical composition has remained identical in its base structure.

The original version went for 7 minutes so throughout the years some editing took place to bring it to its 5 minute version.

I haven’t played this song since 1999. The band I was in at the point in time dropped the song. The other band members felt it was dated and they wanted to start fresh.

The lyrics would change from being a song about “remembering the first time I laid my eyes on someone” to “remembering living and working in the city and being a slave to the grind”.

The song is obviously influenced by the 80s. I grew up on a lot of Twisted Sister and I can feel that Twisted Sister presence and attitude in the music coming through. Songs like “Under The Blade” and “What You Don’t Know Sure Can Hurt You”.

In previous bands I was in, we tried to record this song a few times but for some reason it was always unsuccessful. Either the tempo was too slow or too fast or the singer was struggling with the song vocally or other issues like the tape getting misplaced and losing the masters before the vocals could be cut.

So it went on the back burner and as I progressed through bands it was just totally forgotten due to its 80s feel. 

Until recently. 

I started to record it all by myself around June 2021. The drums took a little bit longer to get organized and I added some extra harmony licks and an additional guitar solo.

Then I started to re-write the lyrics to the same melody I had previously. The only lyrics that stayed the same was the Chorus hook about the “last train leaving at midnight”. It’s what the song was built on.

So after 25 years, the song is finally seeing the light of day.

And here are some lyrical outtakes.