![]() ![]() ![]() Knight and the Pips had plenty of time to figure that balance out. You should really read it.) And he’s absolutely right about “Midnight Train To Georgia,” a perfect record that draws its perfection from that near-impossible balance of seriousness and silliness. (In the book, he lists a bunch more example of “Pipsiness,” including Flavor Flav and Temptations bass singer Melvin Franlin. I don’t agree with Chuck Eddy about everything, but I love this idea. ![]() Calling music “intense” or “emotional” or “soulful” is usually a euphemism for “it seems like something I’m supposed to like.” It’s fairly obvious that the Pips alone would be an ignorable proposition my point is that Gladys alone would be just as ignorable. Without the Pips, Gladys would be merely “intense” - not catchy enough, therefore boring, therefore not intense at all, really. In “Midnight Train To Georgia, which everybody I’ve ever met acknowledges is a great record, the frivolousness of the Pips doing their train-whistle ooo-wooos (especially if you’re watching it on TV and they’re gesturing and spinning around in unison at the same time) is what keeps Gladys’ soul singing down-to-earth. Meanwhile, the Pips circle around her, throwing in little bits that almost seem to be lightly mocking the whole story: “A superstar! But he didn’t get far!” Here’s how Eddy puts it: Knight, a gospel-trained powerhouse, wails about giving her heart to this hopeless doof. In his great 1997 book The Accidental Evolution Of Rock ‘N’ Roll, the critic Chuck Eddy (who was also the first person ever to hire me to write about music) posits what he calls “The Gladys Knight & The Pips Rule.” It’s all about “Midnight Train To Georgia.” Eddy’s whole idea is that “Midnight Train To Georgia,” this grandly wrenching song about being hopelessly in love with a loser, ends up meaning a whole lot more because the Pips are in there, making it sillier and lighter and friendlier and more approachable. ![]()
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