Time Travel

 You may be excused for not knowing the name Jim Weatherly. He was an SEC champion quarterback for the University of Mississippi in the early ‘60s, and went on to a successful career as a singer/songwriter in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, his style was pop-country crossover, which during the ‘60s and ‘70s was dominated by the easy-listening Tyrannosaurus Rex Glen Campbell. Everyone else in that genre during that era operated under Campbell’s massive shadow.

Okay, you might not remember Glen Campbell either but I bet your mother or grandmother, or maybe great aunt, had a crush on him at one point. Look up some of his work on the youtube or spend some time in an elevator or a dentist’s waiting room and I predict you’ll find something you recognize.

Now I’m sure you’ve heard of Lee Majors, star of the wildly successful and penultimately corny TV series “Six Million Dollar Man.” (Yes, I know the meaning of the word penultimate, which is second ultimate; TV viewers from that era would have to vigorously agree that “Hee Haw” carried the standard for ultimate corniness.)

Don’t remember any of that stuff? Not to worry, hang on, we’re about to do a little time traveling, so you’ll get to see it firsthand. But first some background – it all comes together!

Although he didn’t make it into the NFL, Weatherly didn’t completely let go of his sporting interests. He played in an amateur flag football league in LA, and happened to be on the same team as the Six Million Dollar Man. Seems like an unfair advantage, LOL. Anyway, at one point in the late ‘60s, Weatherly called Majors on the phone (landline, one per household, no caller ID y’all), and Farrah Fawcett answered. Nothing too extraordinary here – Fawcett and Majors were dating at the time and would later marry.

Just a little reminder of who Farrah Fawcett is. She was, among her other contributions to the humanities, the numero uno Charlie’s Angel in the original series.

During the brief conversation preceding Fawcett’s summoning Majors to the phone, she made the offhand comment that she was packing her luggage to take a midnight plane to Houston, to visit family. DING DING DING went the bell in Weatherly’s creative brain. There’s a good song title in that! Later that evening he plied his trade and spun out the story, lyrics, and melody for “Midnight Plane to Houston,” which remain largely intact in the song we know today as “Midnight Train to Georgia,” popularized by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Through music marketing contortions I couldn’t hope to unravel, the song ended up in the hands of the producer for soul/gospel singer Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney Houston, and, incidentally, aunt to Dionne Warwick but not related to Tina Turner. Houston purportedly recorded three versions, experimenting with different levels of R&B vs. pop-country, went with the slightly more R&B version, changing the title and lyrics to train/Georgia, and reversing the genders.

Weatherly’s publisher later pitched the song to Gladys Knight and the Pips, who picked it up and in 1973 transformed it further to its full R&B version, and with it, achieved their first #1 hit on the charts and their first gold record (1M sales).

Let’s go multimedia now – since I’m sure you’re reading this on your computer or electronic tether, fire up youtube and dig up the song. There are many covers (including a particularly strained one by Garth Brooks), so do find a Gladys Knight version, and try to attach an original/non-remastered version. Otherwise, our little plan won’t work. Also, you’ll probably need some decent headphones or earbuds as we need the full audio spectrum.

“Midnight Train to Georgia,” a popular song from the early ‘70s as we’ve noted, is as much a symbol - a milepost if you will - in history of that era, musically, and culturally. A big turning point for Gladys Knight and the Pips to be sure, but part of the larger convergence of soul/R&B into mainstream pop music, against the backdrop of the growing pains of racial integration (yes, Karen, that’s what they called it back then) in the US. Listeners who were familiar with the original song in its time would have to have souls made of dry ice to not feel the bittersweet nostalgic sentiment it evokes.

The song itself tells a two-part story. The first is of a man who, in a not-totally defined way, fails to make it big in Tinseltown, presumably in the entertainment field. He fails, and decides to sell out and move back home to his simpler, presumably rural, life in Georgia. The second is that of his girlfriend, or maybe wife, who is a successful star, and who is well accustomed to the lifestyle and very much at home in LA. The tension between these two courses is resolved quickly with the latter’s decision to follow her man back to rural Georgia, to a life we can assume she knows nothing about, is not her home, and holds none of the glamour and prestige to which she’s accustomed. It’s a touching story of how a woman’s love for her man trumps material wealth and advantage, how she’ll leave everything behind just to continue to be with the one she loves. Note, in the original version, it was a man who was leaving his success and fame behind to follow his woman back home, so it works both ways.

Do you have it queued up? Alright, let’s have a listen.

Feel the vibe? Feel the story? Okay, now, concentrate on the bass line. This is why you needed to find the original recording and wear some decent headphones. Follow it if you can; let it go straight into your brain. This isn’t nostalgia anymore; it’s time travel. We are now in the year 1973. OPEC, Viet Nam, Watergate, reverberations from urban racial riots, oh, and Hee Haw and the Six Million Dollar Man. It’s all here.

Okay, we’re now 50 years in the past, but that was just to get you out of the starting blocks – we’re about to go back another 3000 years to a by-no-means simpler place in time, Moab and Judah during the time of the Judges, approx. 1200-1100 BC. Here we find a strikingly similar story with many obvious parallels. In fact, I would surmise that, based on his historical and cultural background, Weatherly was familiar with it.

I encourage you to read the book or Ruth, chapter 1, to familiarize or remind yourself of the details; in case this is new to you, I bet you’ve heard part of it a few times if you’ve been to Christian or Jewish weddings.

To recap, Naomi, along with her husband and two sons, all Judahites, are living in Moab. Her sons marry Moabite women, and cruel misfortune strikes, specifically with the death of Naomi’s husband and both sons, and generally with a famine in Moab.

Naomi and her daughters in law are now bereft and desperate. Naomi decides to return to Judah where she hopes to find some sustenance, and advises her DILs Ruth and Orpah (not Oprah, sorry no free cars today) to return to Moab and find new husbands. Ruth 1 chronicles the interchange; ultimately Orpah returns to her people in Moab but Ruth steadfastly clings to Naomi, expressing her complete devotion to the latter:

“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”

Ruth 1:16-17, KJV

That’s the part you may recognize from weddings – the expression of complete and lifelong devotion which, although it’s between two widows, a DIL and a MIL, translates well to husband-wife. And, since it’s between two women as it does so, there are no dominant or subservient gender roles indicated, so as with the 70s R&B counterpart story, it works both ways.

Let’s remove the VR headsets now and as we return to the 21^st century, ask the all-important question, “Bruck, what did you have for lunch?” Savory pork and mushroom soup, masterfully prepared by the inestimably magnificent wife of Bruck (IMWOB).

Oh wait, the all-important question is, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”

Lifelong and complete devotion to another is a high ideal, but it’s not confined to fictitious love songs or ancient Bible stories. It’s a necessary component of a long and healthy relationship. Note also the time dimension – it’s not just a one-and-done trip to Judah or Georgia; it’s till death do us part (Well okay, we don’t know what happened after Brad and Jennifer got to Georgia). There a magnitude dimension as well – leaving LA for Georgia, or Moab for Judah doesn’t happen every day, but acts of devotion do. Presumably Ruth gleaned and provided for her MIL daily, and the IMWOB prepares fantastic soup and other exquisite meals pretty frequently, and I umm… keep the cars running!

Unfortunately, the Fawcett-Majors marriage didn’t stand the test of time, although by Hollywood standards, it did pretty well at 9 years. Many others among the aforementioned characters parted from their spouses for reasons other than death as well. The widow Ruth, on the other hand, did much better on that front – she went on to marry Boaz, and together they begat the grandfather of King David. This intricate story is spelled out in the remaining chapters of the book of Ruth.

But the real all-important question is: Where are you in the story?

And you can thank me for Midnight Train to Georgia rattling around in your head for the next week and a half!