What an incredibly flexible gift midnight is to a songwriter. Here is a moment in the day when all the normal rules simply don't apply. Whoever you've been all day can be forgotten; whoever you've been with all day can be forgotten, too, because midnight belongs to the crazy people – whether they're crazy with love, lust, or loneliness doesn't really matter. At midnight, just as one day morphs into another, there's a window that opens for a moment, during which you are allowed to reinvent yourself completely.
When Howlin' Wolf moans, the whole world knows about it. And here, over a musical track that stumbles, grinds and creaks into life, he complains loudly about someone knocking at his door and calling his phone, when, frankly, it's late and "daddy's gone to bed". For JJ Cale, though, the hours that follow 12am are ones that overflow with good times. "After midnight, gonna shake your tambourine," he sings, "after midnight it's gonna be peaches and cream."
Bobby Womack sees nothing but positives in this special time of night. His 1968 funk-soul floor-filler I'm a Midnight Mover promises he's "a midnight teaser, a soul pleaser", but it also recognises the price one must pay for such activities. "I'm a midnight creeper," he admits, "all-day sleeper". Is Bob Marley and the Wailers' Midnight Ravers about the cross-dressing and homosexuality he had witnessed while living in England in the early 70s? Possibly. What's certain is that this is an ode to a very particular sort of nightlife. "I can't tell my woman from the man," he sings, "she is dressed in the same pollution."
The witching hour was the beginning of a very dark and lonely journey for Gil Scott-Heron. "Long ago the clock washed midnight away," he says, "bringing the dawn." Never has hearing an elderly man talking about pulling on his socks sounded so captivating. Then there's the brilliant Norma Waterson dancing with her darling. "Midnight on the water so steady and slow," she sings, "stay up till the morning, one more for the road."
Now, it's just a hunch, but I get the feeling that when John Phillips wrote Midnight Voyage he was actually alluding to the process of mental travel through the medium of hallucinogenic drugs. "Come on, let's take a midnight voyage," he and his band trill, "let me take you on a little trip, come on, come on, woah, come on." Do you see? A Tribe Called Quest recognise the pull of the night. "For the ghetto child," they suggest, midnight "seems to be the right time" – it brings jewels and dice games, hero sandwiches to eat, weed to smoke and girls to chase.
Thanks to a state school education (and my not paying attention) I can't translate Françoise Hardy's 1980 disco-pop hipshaker, but even I can understand the sentiment behind her exclamation of "ooh-la-la". Thankfully, the Shadows' Midnight has no words to translate, happy as it is with its outrageous twanginess, flirting fruitily with the melody, the vibe, indeed the very aesthetic of Santo and Johnny's timelessly wonderful 1959 smash, Sleepwalk. And when do most people sleepwalk? Sometime after midnight, that's when.
This week's playlist
1 Moanin' At Midnight Howlin' Wolf
2 After Midnight JJ Cale
3 I'm a Midnight Mover Bobby Womack
4 Midnight Ravers Bob Marley & the Wailers
5 Where Did the Night Go Gil Scott Heron
6 Midnight On the Water Norma Waterson
7 Midnight Voyage Mamas and the Papas
8 Midnight A Tribe Called Quest
9 Minuit Minuit François Hardy
10 Midnight The Shadows
Next week: songs with sound effects
