THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

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

1944-It 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 musical 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, at the age of 61. 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. He acquired the nickname ‘Lead Belly’ while in prison, more than likely because of his strong local accent, with ‘Huddie William Ledbetter from Shreveport,’ being misheard as ‘Huddie Weem Leadbelly from Freeport.’ Although on many of his records he is credited as ‘Leadbelly,’ he wrote his name as ‘Lead Belly,’ and this is the spelling on his tombstone, and is also used by the ‘Lead Belly Foundation.’

Between 1915-1939, Ledbetter served several prison and jail terms in Louisiana, for a variety of criminal charges. It was the ‘Folklorists’ John Lomax, (1867-1948) and his son Alan Lomax, (1915-2002) (see also best songs 781) who ‘discovered’ Ledbetter in ‘Angola Penitentiary’ during a 1933 visit, when recording varieties of local music in the South as a project to preserve traditional music for the ‘Library of Congress,’ this was one of numerous cultural projects undertook during the ‘Great Depression.’ The Lomaxes were very impressed with Ledbetter and recorded him in prison in 1933 and 1934. Many artists have paid tribute to Ledbetter over the years, George Harrison (1943-2001) (see also best songs 737 and 726) 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’ (see also best songs 599-456-319-238-218-141-80-51-10 and 6.) Bob Dylan (see also best songs 792-621-358-103-36 and 7) 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 more recent 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.’

The discography of Lead Belly includes 19 singles released between 1935-1948, and seven Albums released between 1939-1947. His list of posthumous releases include ‘The Library of Congress’ recordings, made by John and Alan Lomax from 1934 to 1943, which were released in a six-volume series by ‘Rounder Records,’ between 1991-1995. There are also a further 18 official compilation Albums, and two live Albums made available since his death.

‘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.” The American 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 (1967-1994) universal acclaim from critics and fellow musicians. Neil Young (see also best songs 602 and 559) 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.’