Midnight Train to Georgia -- Gladys Knight and the Pips

This song was the number one hit in the country 40 years ago. Anything on today's pop charts that doesn't seem like unadulterated barbarism compared to this?

Of course, 1973's Gladys Knight probably seemed more barbaric than civilized to those who delighted in Cole Porter in 1934. And let's not forget that Cole Porter, who seems so civilized today, was intentionally tweaking the noses of his elders, who were raised on Elgar's Rondel (1894), a work of exquisite beauty.

L.A. proved too much for the man,
So he's leavin' the life he's come to know,
He said he's goin' back to find
Ooh, what's left of his world,
The world he left behind
Not so long ago.
He's leaving,
On that midnight train to Georgia,
And he's goin' back
To a simpler place and time.
And I'll be with him
On that midnight train to Georgia,
I'd rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine.
He kept dreamin'
That someday he'd be a star.
But he sure found out the hard way
That dreams don't always come true.
So he pawned all his hopes
and he even sold his old car
Bought a one way ticket
To the life he once knew,
Oh yes he did,
He said he would
Be leavin
On that midnight train to Georgia,
And he's goin' back
To a simpler place and time.
And I'll be with him
On that midnight train to Georgia,
I'd rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine.
Go, gonna board, gonna board,
Gonna board the midnight train.
Gotta go, gonna board
Gonna board
Gonna board the midnight train
(repeat, fade)