The structure of the song "Midnight Rider," written by Greg Allman, is very simple. It starts with a short guitar introduction, about four measures long, the rest of the instruments come in for eight measures, and then the verse starts. There are three verses in the song, all consisted of four lines, with the last two lines of each verse being the refrain. So really you could say that Allman only wrote three, two line verses with each line having the same melody and the refrain only being slightly different. All of the verse have parallel melodies. The intro guitar part is a mixture of strings that sound to be part of one chord. They continue to play when the bass, drums, and lead guitar come in for the next eight measures, and the only time the guitar intro ceases to play is during the refrain and the instrumental break, separating the second and third verses, when it plays straight chords. The very rockin' style of this song makes it slightly difficult to determine exact melodic solfege but it is obvious that the main melodic theme is based on a minor triad of some sort, possibly "re-fa-fa-la" which is "I've-got-to-run." It's even odder because I assumed that the song was in a major key, but now I'm not totally sure. Yet, the exact notes are really not so important in comparison to the more noticeable vocal harmony that happens throughout the whole song. After the second verse, there is an instrumental break with a guitar solo, a short jam, and then two lead guitar parts playing together, harmonizing at certain points even though they are playing completely different parts. The song is probably in a slow two which you might determine by listening to the percussion which uses a classic rock beat: the bass drum on the first beat and the snare on the second. The bass line is very solid because it either stays fairly stagnant or follows the motion of the rhythm guitar. There is also an organ that accompanies with straight chords during most of the song. Overall, it is easy to hear a lot of motion chord from I to V to I again.
I really enjoy the smooth rocking sound of this song and how all the simple parts play together to really jam. I especially like the lyrics which describe the speaker's life on the road or run, however you wish to see it. First, the speaker has "got to run to keep from hidin" and he's "bound to keep on ridin'", meaning he's always on the run. The verse talk about the down sides to this life in the fast lane; "I don't own the clothes I'm wearing, and the road goes on forever." In the last verse the speaker has finally given up his crazy lifestyle, "I've gone past the point of caring. Some old bed I'll soon be sharing." He has given up and settled done, kind of sad. The words of the song are very interesting and have deeper meaning than most listeners care to notice.
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The character in the song isn't settling down at the end. He said he is past the point of caring, not that he is quitting the lifestyle. The old bed he mentions sharing is symbolic of his marriage to that unhealthy style of living. And the clothes he is wearing that he doesn't own? He is talking about being inhabited... about being possessed. Basically, this song is slyly talking about Satan, not necessarily 'worshipping' the Devil, but his nasty ways. Think about it: he's running away and he's the midnight rider.
Funny, I always thought that the bed he'd soon be sharing was a reference to "the grave". I think the the reference to not owning the clothes he's wearing is more about living beyond his means with connotations of doing so to a criminal degree, the concept of it being symbolic of living a "satanic" lifestyle, to sorta paraphrase (I guess) seems a bit too much of an interpretive stretch to me, but I don't spend lots of time dissecting poetry for inner meaning. Still it's one of the dwindling few "classic rock" tunes that I think is still worth listening to.
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