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THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

Posted by: In: Other 20 Jan 2022 Comments: 0

THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

431-Lead Belly-Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

1944-Has never charted in the UK. There was no chart until 1952.

Best Bit-At 2.31. The more I read and write about music the more I realise that if it wasn’t for the previous generations influence on the next generation, our music heritage would be an awful lot poorer. Perhaps Lead Belly was the most influential of them all.

Huddie William Ledbetter was probably born on January 23rd, 1888, in Mooringsport, Louisiana, United States, he died on December 6th, 1949, having earlier on that year been diagnosed with Motor Neuron disease.

Lead Belly was known for playing a twelve-string guitar, as well as the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, and windjammer. He recorded in many genres including Folk Blues, and Gospel, and also wrote many songs himself. George Harrison said,’If there was no Lead Belly, there would have been no Lonnie Donegan, no Lonnie Donegan,(see also best songs 484 and 136) no Beatles, therefore no Lead Belly no Beatles. Bob Dylan said,’Somebody I’d never seen before handed me a Lead Belly record with the song ‘Cotton Fields,’ on it, and that record changed my life right there and then.’From the current crop of musicians George Ezra (see also best songs 355) has said that he developed his singing style from listening to Lead Belly. ‘On the back of one of his records it said his voice was so big, you had to turn your record player down. I liked the idea of singing with a big voice, so I tried it, and I could.’

‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ is a traditional American Folk song that developed from two songs, ‘In the Pines,’ and ‘The Longest Train, it is also known as ‘My Girl,’ and ‘Black Girl,’ and both were probably written around 1870 by an unknown source. Like many other Folk songs ‘In the Pines’ was passed down from generation to generation, and over time lyrics have been added, and also changed. The earliest recordings of the song date back to 1925, with many versions in differing genres recorded since. Lead Belly recorded the song at least six times between 1944-1948, most often under the title of ‘Black Girl,’ or ‘Black Gal.” Bill Monroe (1911-1996) recorded the song in 1941 and then again in 1952, with both versions being highly influential on the ‘Bluegrass’ and ‘Country Music’ genres. In the UK the song has charted on one occasion when the English Beat group ‘The Four Pennies’ reached Number 20 in 1964 with their version called ‘Black Girl,’ they never released the song as a single in America. The most famous, and also critically acclaimed version of the song is the 1993 MTV Unplugged recording by Nirvana,(see also best songs 788 and 9) which earned Kurt Cobain universal acclaim from critics and fellow musicians. Neil Young was deeply impressed with Cobain’s performance, he said,’The tortured final vocals sounded unearthly, like a werewolf, unbelievable.’

‘My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me, tell me where did you sleep last night. In the pines, in the pines, where the sun don’t ever shine.’