“The Man in the Middle” was written by Tom Harley Campbell. The earliest recording listed at SecondHandSongs is by the Hotmud Family, made live on 11 November 1978 at the Towne Crier Cafe in Hopewell Junction, New York, and released in 1979 on the Flying Fish album Live, as We Know It, with Suzanne Edmundson singing lead.
The song is a gospel retelling of the crucifixion. It opens with three men on a mountain at Calvary and says that the one in the middle was Jesus. The man on the left is a sinner who mocks Jesus and challenges him to come down from the cross and save them. The man on the right is sorry for his sins and begs forgiveness, and Jesus tells him not to fear: before the day is over he will be with him in paradise.
Hot Rize recorded it in Denver for Radio Boogie (Flying Fish, 1981), with Tim O’Brien singing lead and Pete Wernick and Nick Forster on harmony. Bill Grant and Delia Bell recorded it in Nashville for their 1980 Rebel album, and Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys recorded it on 6 February 1985 at Maggard Sound Studios in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, for I Can Tell You the Time (Rebel, 1985).
